The Quint : an Interdisciplinary Quarterly from the North 1

the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 1 Editorial Advisory Board the quint volume ten issue one Ying Kong, University College of the North Moshen Ashtiany, Columbia University Martin Kuester, University of Marburg Brenda Austin-Smith, University of Ronald Marken, Professor Emeritus, an interdisciplinary quarterly from Manitoba University of Saskatchewan Keith Batterbe. University of Turku Camille McCutcheon, University of South the north Donald Beecher, Carleton University Carolina Upstate Melanie Belmore, University College of the Lorraine Meyer, Brandon University ISSN 1920-1028 North Ray Merlock, University of South Carolina editor Gerald Bowler, Independent Scholar Upstate Sue Matheson Robert Budde, University Northern British Antonia Mills, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University of Northern British Columbia Ikuko Mizunoe, Professor Emeritus, John Butler, Independent Scholar Kyoritsu Women’s University David Carpenter, Professor Emeritus, the quint welcomes submissions. See our guidelines University of Saskatchewan Avis Mysyk, Cape Breton University or contact us at: Terrence Craig, Mount Allison University Hisam Nakamura, Tenri University the quint Lynn Echevarria, Yukon College Andrew Patrick Nelson, University of University College of the North Montana P.O. Box 3000 Erwin Erdhardt, III, University of Sherry Peden, University College of the The Pas, Manitoba Cincinnati North Canada R9A 1K7 Peter Falconer, University of Bristol Julie Pelletier, University of Winnipeg We cannot be held responsible for unsolicited Peter Geller, University of the Fraser Valley Vincent Pitturo, Denver University material Susan Gold, University of Windsor Frances Pheasant-Kelly, University of Peter Gordon, Independent Scholar Wolverhampton Jim Gough, Athabasca University Christian Riegel, University of Regina John George Hansen, University of Steve Roe, Northern Lights College Saskatchewan Dan Smith, University College of the North production Richard Harris, University of Saskatchewan Robert Spindler, University of Innsbruck Sue Matheson cover photo: Sue Matheson Stella Hockenhull, University of Nicholas Tyrras, Independent Scholar Wolverhampton Darrell Varga, NSCAD A quarterly journal, the quint is housed in the Faculty of Arts, Business and Science at the University of the North. The encouragement and support of this project by the Vice President Academic of the Didi Hutchins, University of Alaska Gene Walz, University of Manitoba (Anchorage) University College of the North is deeply appreciated. Robin Waugh, Wilfred Laurier University Deborah Lynn Kitchen Døderlein, Copyright 2017© the quint for the contributors. No part of this publication may be reproduced. University of Oslo David Williams, University of Manitoba 2 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 3 contents contents

EDITORIAL RECONSIDERING IMMORTALITY, CONSUMPTION & TRAGEDY IN THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF DC COMICS' SUPERMAN by Kwasu David Tembo...... 109 after i read by Brian MacKinnon...... 9 HUNGER by Léna Remy-Kovach...... 135 Winter Fantasy by Sue Matheson...... 10 Winter Eventide by Sue Matheson...... 136 The Role of Food in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth Century Colonialism in North America THE MACROECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF EDUCATION TOURISM IN by Jim Daems...... 11 BRITAIN'S ECONOMY, 1895 - 2015 by Ben-Akinduro C. Funmike...... 137 OFF TO THE FUTURE by Rupert M. Loydell...... 36 Raven #3 by Sue Matheson...... 161 Sentry in Black and White by Sue Matheson...... 38 from Battle For Life: A Poetic Autobiography by Zhang Yawen translated by Ying Critical Issues in Research Ethics Involving Human Subjects by Jim Gough...... 39 Kong...... 162

SQUATTING by Allen Berry...... 60 Snow #2 by Sue Matheson...... 170

Marshmallow Treats by Sue Matheson...... 59 A Study of the Dramaturgy of Fatalism in Lancelot Imasuen's Invasion 1897 by Taiwo Okunola Afolabi and Stephen Ogheneruro Posing a Problem: Prozac Nation and the ghostly failures of Jewish American Okapadah...... 171 Assimilation by Amy Tziporah Karp...... 62 PAGE 129 by Rupert M. Loydell...... 191 ABOUT THE SKY by Rupert M. Loydell...... 94 A Road Not Taken by Sue Matheson...... 193 Snoangel #2 by Sue Matheson...... 96 Sweating in two Worlds by Joseph D. Atoyebi...... 194 Intervening Angels, May 1937 by Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon...... 97 DECONSTRUCTION by Allen Berry...... 220 LINGUISTICS by Allen Berry...... 107 Frosted by Sue Matheson...... 224 Treads #1 by Sue Matheson...... 108 "Guess I do Look Rotten--Yust out of Hospital": Female Psychological Turmoil in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie by Olfa Gandouz...... 225

4 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 5 EDITORIAL contents It is December, and the quint is now ten years old, healthy and growing. This Christmas, new writers from around the world have joined the journal. Showcasing articles from ANOTHER DARK TOMORROW by Rupert M. Loydell...... 248 Canada, the United States, Scotland, Nigeria, Tunisia, Italy, and India, this quint begins Moon Above Batbox on Birch by Sue Matheson...... 251 with Jim Daems' fascinating study of food as a colonial marker in sixteenth and seventeenth century North America. Daems argues that early modern colonizers used food as "The twisted feet, the half-blind eyes, are easily forgotten": The Collision of Trauma a means by which to structure their perceptions of the indigene. Jim Gough's thoughtful and Counter-Trauma in J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians by Suchismita Dutta...... 252 "Critical Issues in Research Ethics Involving Human Subjects" follows. Gough's considerations invite more discussion about the controversial topics and issues associated with Shadows on the wall by R.P. Singh...... 266 making decisions about the use of human subjects in scientific research. Next, in "Pos- Windy Day by Sue Matheson...... 268 ing a Problem: Prozac Nation and the ghostly failures of Jewish American Assimilation," Amy Tziporah Karp explores problematics/prohibitions in the Jewish American assimila- Boxing Helena: An Obsession Worth Recovering by Antonio Sanna...... 271 tion narrative. Following, Kwasu David Tembo's "RECONSIDERING IMMORTAL- CAFFEINE NATION by Allen Berry...... 275 ITY, CONSUMPTION & TRAGEDY IN THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF DC COMICS' SUPERMAN " assesses the phenomena of Superman’s immortality in Snow Fence by Sue Matheson...... 276 terms of athanasia as well as timelessness. A careful and well-supported examination, The First Ingredient by Walter M. Young...... 277 Ben-Akinduro C. Funmike's "THE MACROECONOM-IC SUSTAINABILITY OF EDUCATION TOURISM IN BRITAIN'S ECONOMY, 1895 - 2015"outlines the Main Street, The Pas, MB by Sue Matheson...... 282 impact and viability of education tourism to the economy of the UK as a sustainable A Review of Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happinessby Paromita industry to the national economy and within a growing global market. Taiwo Okunola Sengupta...... 283 Afolabi and Stephen Ogheneruro Okapadah's "A Study of the Dramaturgy of Fatalism in Lancelot Imasuen's Invasion 1897" finds a discourse on the belief system that holds sway in African societies in Invasion 1897 and recommends a continuous exploration of CONTRIBUTORS...... 289 traditional beliefs by Nigerian cum African filmmakers.Then Olfa Gandouz's thought- CFP MOSAIC...... 294 provoking "Guess I do Look Rotten--Yust out of Hospital": Female Psychological Tur- SUBMISSION...... 295 moil in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie " finds Eugene O’Neill revisits female stereotypes, GUIDELINES...... 295 defends female rights and calls for a better treatment of women in Anna Christie. Then, Suchismita Dutta's insightful argument in "'The twisted feet, the half-blind eyes, are eas- CALL FOR PAPERS...... 304 ily forgotten': The Collision of Trauma and Counter-Trauma in J.M. Coetzee'sWaiting 6 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 7 for the Barbarians" considers the plight of the subaltern suggested by the book's covers. Antonio Sanna's provocative review of Boxing Helena, one of the most extreme erotic thrillers of its time, definitely worthy of being (re-)watched. Finally, Paromita Sengupta's after i read review concludes that Arundhati Roy's long-awaited The Ministry of Utmost Happinessis not happy or comfortable reading....for very good reasons. after i read the final words No quint is complete without its creative complement. This issue contains poetry after coming back through and prose for your enjoyment. Ying Kong's stunning translation of Zhang Yawen's Battle the wilderness with the kid for Life is simply superb. We know you will enjoy Brian MacKinnon's incredibly taut and resonant work, Allen Berry's beautiful, minimalist verse, and Rupert M. Loydell's “through the glimmer... where sophisticated and superbly controlled poems. Léna Remy-Kovach's direct and sensitive the old man waited, a deck of cards poem makes winter a Weetigo. Then, the playful verse by the award-winning Indian on the scarred poet, R.P. Singh serves to balance the seriousness of these creative offerings. the quint is and battered deeply honored to premiere Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon's deeply touching short story table” in the late about the depth of a father's love for his son and Joseph D. Atoyebi's personal and forth- Richard Wagamese’s right account of how sweating can enable us to transcend our cultural limitations. We Medicine Walk were thrilled to welcome the first part of Walter M. Young's intriguing serial and hope he'll post its next installment with us....I have to know what the "Second Ingredient" is. i caught my breath When you have finished reading, my visual offerings from the North invite you to con- and pulled sider the many facets of light and snow outside our windows. the novel and its entire world to my heart With no further ado, here's to good reading and viewing, warm nights inside with and embraced thought-provoking material and a cup of something hot while you wait for your Christ- it mas stocking to be filled. At the quint, we wish you all the best the holidays can bring and (in seventy reading years) very Happy New Year. the quint will be back in March with more offerings for reading i’d never done and viewing, in time for the Easter holiday. that before Sue Matheson Editor —brian mackinnon

8 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 9 Winter Fantasy Sue Matheson

The Roles of Food in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century English Colonialism in North America

by Jim Daems, University College of the North, Thompson, Manitoba, Canada

We might think that food served similar purposes, beyond the obvious physical necessity, for people in the early modern period, but, how people culturally and religiously view what they eat and how medical discourses view the way that the body processes that food have changed significantly over the centuries in the western world. What the Eng- lish, and the Spanish that preceded them, met with in the “New World” were Indigenous peoples that prepared and ate a largely unfamiliar diet. The point may seem an obvious one today; however, strange foods and peoples raised a number of concerns grounded in the limitations of early modern theories regarding the human body, digestion, climate, and, what we may, with certain qualifiers, call race. Food and its preparation—or, indeed, the issue of whether a people cooked their food at all—was of great significance in the

10 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 11 construction of binaries of “civilized” and “barbaric,” commensurate with “English,” or parts of the body. The liver converts the food it receives into four liquid substances, “European,” and “Indigene.” As the structural anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss noted, the humours, which are to the human body what the elements are to the common “The raw / cooked axis is characteristic of culture; the fresh / decayed one of nature, since matter of the earth. (76) cooking brings about the cultural transformation of the raw, just as putrefaction is its Each element contributed to a specific “humour.” Earth was equated with a melancholic, natural transformation” (142). Even today, we may still see what we eat and how we pre- air with a sanguine, fire with a choleric, and water with a phlegmatic temperament. Fur- pare it as “normal” in contrast to peoples that eat and prepare food that are unfamiliar ther, these elements and their corresponding humours related to specific qualities. Earth to us, or in some extremely bigoted examples, as eating food only fit for animals. Yet, for / melancholic is cold and dry; air / sanguine is hot and moist; fire / choleric is hot and the majority of us, there is no fear in eating Chinese food on Monday, a burger and fries dry; and water / phlegmatic is cold and moist (Tillyard 76). Health was an issue of main- on Tuesday, Mexican on Wednesday, etc. To the early modern European, however, this taining the proper balance within the body of these four elements. Climate, environ- was potentially, dangerously transformative due to their belief in bodily humours. My ment, and diet (itself related to climate and environment) all contributed to how these argument, then, will focus on how European beliefs about food constructed the relation- elements and qualities were mixed and maintained in terms of national / racial charac- ship between colonizer and colonized. What I will argue, following the work of scholars teristics. Yet, precisely because such attention was needed to maintain a correct balance, such as Jorge Cañizares-Esquerra and Joyce E. Chaplin, is that the attempt to construct humoral theory could not effectively constitute a stable, fixed identity—it is radically, the Indigenous other through food both problematized early modern European theories potentially fluid because of the influence of diet and the exacerbating factors that could while contributing to a pseudo-racial construction of difference based on diet that played be imposed by climate and environment. As Rebecca Earle points out, a key role in justifying the colonial enterprise.

I want to begin by sketching out the predominant theory, through much of the Colonial writers throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries agreed that period covered by this essay, that influenced how Europeans saw food—the theory of ‘those who come from other climates through [eating] new foods generate new humours. The human body was seen as comprised of the same four “elements” as the rest blood, which produces new humors, [and] the new humors [create] new abilities of God’s creation: earth, air, fire, and water. As E. M. W. Tillyard notes, and conditions.’ A change in food, like a change in climate, was liable to provoke

a change in both body and character. (693) Man’s physical life begins with food, and food is made of the four elements. Food

passes through the stomach to the liver, which is lord of the lowest of the three One of the primary concerns, beyond the mere necessity of sustenance, was in securing

12 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 13 food sources that would prevent such physical and behavioural transformations. This forced the shared origin of the “civilized” and the “barbaric” in the genealogy of human- may involve, as Joyce E. Chaplin notes, some practical testing that was accomplished ity descending from Adam and Eve. The differences occurred because “through eating through the exchange of food between coloniser and colonised: this inadequate food, as much as through the impact of climate […] the Indians had lost their Old World temperament” (Earle 693). But this difference could also prompt some If natives could eat English food, that indicated that the two peoples’ foodstuffs rather peculiar debates about why Indigenous peoples were different from Europeans. […] might be interchangeable […]. Still, it was possible that Indian digestion was For example, the perplexing question of why Indigenous males did not generally have more forgiving. Some colonists believed that it would take some adjustment to live beards, and whether the Spanish colonisers might, therefore, lose their beards (a prized on corn, or to learn which kinds (and what amounts) suited English people and sign of their masculine virility) by ingesting the Indigenous diet and living in a hot moist their animals. (150) climate. Gregorio García, however, argued that, “The Spanish were unlikely to lose their

Early modern colonizers used the theory not only to characterize their own identities, beards because the ‘temperance and virtue that the Spaniards born in the Indies inherited but also to negatively characterize the identities of Indigenous peoples. They sought to from their fathers and grandfathers’ were continually reinforced through the consump- discover what foods were safe, and in what amount, in order to prevent the negative con- tion of Spanish food” (Earle 692-3). sequences of being subjected to a “New World” climate, environment, and diet which The writings considered in this article consistently address such concerns. Thom- may result in a constitutive change in their own identities and bodies. The colonisers may, as Hariot’s cataloguing of “merchantable commodities” and foodstuffs, for example, is in what was seen as the worst case scenario, become like the Indigene if they could not marked by frequent comparisons of things currently found in Virginia, or which can be discover the proper balance that would maintain their English humours. This realization successfully introduced, that can grow because of the “same climate” and latitude with points, again, to the radical instability of the humoral model. some area in Europe or Asia to provide known food sources to counteract any negative This concern was evident from the time of Columbus’ “discovery” into at least the New World affects. This all points, however, to the fact that, “There was little knowledge middle of the seventeenth century. Earle notes Columbus’ belief that European food of the dynamics of climate and of the effects of the movement of the atmosphere from would maintain Spanish identity in the New World and counteract the negative af- west to east, which makes the weather on the east coasts of continents so different from fects of climate and environment (688). Because humoral theory made the human body that on the west” (Kupperman 215). As Karen Ordahl Kupperman points out, this con- a microcosmic representation of the macrocosm created by God, transforming from tributed to “The general agreement that English people would be healthiest in the tem- “civilized” European into “barbaric” Indigene was possible—and Christian theology rein- perate climates they were used to […] as a reason to concentrate colonization on New 14 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 15 England and Newfoundland” (216). Hariot addresses fears of transformation and disease ‘after so much time he was accustomed to the food of the Indians, and his stomach through diet, and his comments on similar foodstuffs points towards such concerns would regard Christian food as foreign.’ […] His digestive system had gone native; and are rhetorically intended to correct them. Finally, he also notes that the temperate in humoral terms, he had acquired a ‘second nature,’ and as a result, his body was climate is suitable to introduce European crops and animals based on latitudinal calcula- not quite Christian as it had been prior to his shipwreck. He had begun to turn tions. This, too, appears directed toward the same concerns. Hariot states, into an Indian. (Earle 699)

For the holesomenesse thereof I neede to say but thus much: that for all the want Theory, though, could be forced aside by mere necessity—starvation. But, even of prouision, as first of English victual; excepting for twentie daies, wee liued only here, such concerns manifest themselves. For many, the journey to either Virginia, Mas- by drinking water and by the victual of the countrey, of which some sorts were very sachusetts Bay, Newfoundland, or in search of the Northwest Passage, was a trying time straunge vnto vs, and might haue bene thought to haue altered our temperatures in terms of food. Provisions, if adequate for the journey, were often spoiled or destroyed in such sort as to haue brought vs into some greeuous and dangerous diseases […]. during the passage. Other issues included the fact that, even reaching America with suf- Furthermore, in all our travailes which were most special and often in the time of ficient rations for the journey, there may not be much left upon arrival. In part, this was winter, our lodging was in the open aire vpon the grounde. And yet I say for all a result of colonial promotional literature’s recurring chorus of New World bounty of this, there were but foure of our whole company (being one hundred and eight) recognizable foodstuffs. Or, as is the case with the Pilgrims, a delayed departure meant that died all the yeere and that but at the latter ende thereof and vpon none of arrival during the winter, with little food to be found in nature and no possibility of the aforesaide causes. For all foure especially three were feeble, weake, and sickly planting their wheat seed or for providing food for the few animals they had. Wolves, persons before euer they cam thither, and those that knewe them much marveyled too, exacerbated the threat. John Winthrop records starvation and scurvy among the hu- that they liued so long being in that case, or had aduentured to trauaile. (31-2) mans, while wolves attacked their livestock (31). Regardless, food had to be found upon arrival within a relatively short time—for either continuing a journey of exploration and Hariot’s stress on the limited deaths and the lack of any transformation of the English re-provisioning for the return to England, or for the establishment and maintenance of dispel fears expressed vividly in an account of Jerónimo de Aquilar’s eight-year sojourn a colonial settlement. While some of the flora and fauna was similar to England’s, and with the Maya after a shipwreck. Unable to eat Spanish food when found by Spaniards, other, less familiar food items were known from earlier Spanish and English accounts, de Aquilar stated that, the colonizers had to trade with the Indigenous people for food in order to survive, or

16 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 17 learn to plant and harvest like the Indigenous people. At Plymouth, for example, Squan- though contrary to his Commission: Let fly his muskets, ran his boat on shore, to, an Indigenous man who had been kidnapped by the English and escaped slavery in where at they all fled into the woods. So marching towards their houses, they might Europe, taught the Pilgrims how to “set their corne, wher to take fish, and to procure see great heapes of corne: much adoe he had to restraine his hungry souldiers from other commodities” (Bradford 229) in their first spring. Some initial interactions may present taking of it, expecting as it hapned that the Salvages would assault them, as have brought the two peoples together, but in many cases, these situations created strife not long after they did with a most hydeous noyse. (45) between the colonizers and soon-to-be colonized. Smith’s small band of men are successful in repulsing the attack and seize the people For example, the Virginia Company’s initial voyage arrived with limited provisions of Kecoughtan’s “idol,” the Okee, to use as a bargaining advantage to get the food they and faced starvation through its first year, until John Smith arrived in Jamestown in want—allowing Smith to represent the clash at Kecoughtan as evidence of English supe- 1608. Smith, Trudy Eden argues, taught the colonists lessons learned as a soldier—forage riority, the Indigenous people’s savagery, and the enforced negotiation as a fair exchange for food and “imitate the natives. In addition, “He […] managed to obtain a supply of when the Natives emerge from the woods in which they took refuge. Smith tells them, maize from local Indians. If he expected gratitude in return for his efforts, however, he was disappointed. The English colonists told Smith flatly that they would not eat ‘sav- he would not only be their friend, but restore them their Okee, and giue them age trash’” (3). But, Eden initially downplays how Smith “obtained a supply of maize.” Beads, Copper, and Hatchets besides: which on both sides was to their contents The Virginia colonists first traded with the local Indigenous people for some foodstuffs performed: and then they brought him Venison, Turkies, wild foule, bread, and that they did not classify as “trash,” but Smith, “seeing the Salvages superfluitie beginne what they had, singing and dauncing in signe of friendship till they departed. (45) to decrease,” was forced to explore and make contact with another group of Indigenous This account justifies English raids as “necessitie,” and while Smith initially recognizes people to find more food: that the first group of Indigenous people no longer have a surplus supply of food to Being but six or seauen in company he [Smith] went downe the river to Kecoughtan, trade or seize, his actions endanger the lives of another Indigenous group by not being where at first they scorned him, as a famished man, and would in derision offer particularly concerned whether they have any surplus to spare. The consequence of such

him a handful of Corne, a peece of bread, for their swords and muskets, and such actions reach beyond just creating strife between English and Indigenous, having one’s like proportions also for their apparell. But seeing by trade and courtesie there was food taken created tension between Indigenous groups in need of food from such dep- nothing to be had, he made bold to try such conclusions as necessitie inforced, redations.

18 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 19 In other instances, it appears that the Indigenous people avoided conflict by fleeing in roasting of fishes, which they delight in, the aire doeth beget good stomacks, and their settlements upon the approach of the colonizers. Similarly in need of food and “a they feede continually, and are no niggards of their vittels, for they are willing, that place for habitation” (Bradford 213), the Pilgrims sent Miles Standish out to explore the any one shall eate with them, Nay if any one, that shall come into their houses, area. Following a group of Indigenous people that flee their approach, Standish and his and there fall a sleepe, when they see him disposed to lye downe, they will spreade men come upon a settlement where they, a matt for him of their owne accord, and lay a roule of skinnes for boulster, and let him lye: if hee sleepe untill the meate be dished up, they will set a wooden boule found a pond of clear fresh water, and shortly after a good quantitie of clear ground of meate by him that sleepeth, & wake him saying […] if you be hungry, there is wher ye Indeans had formerly set corne, and some of their graves. And proceeding meat for you, where if you will eate you may, such is their Humanity. (25-6) furder they saw new-stuble wher corne had been set ye same year, also they found

wher latly a house had been, wher some planks and a great kettle was remaining, Understandably, however, many Indigenous groups became increasingly suspicious of and heaps of sand newly padled with their hands, which they, digging up, found the newcomers, fostered by distrust of food raids and other conflicts over land that were in them diverce faire Indean baskets filled with corne, and some in eares, faire and often, at least in part, caused by pressures placed on food resources from the arrival of good, of diverce collours. (Bradford 215) the Europeans. But humoral fears about eating Indigenous foods, and the perception of it as “trash,” Standish and his men take the corn, and repeat this shortly after when they come upon persisted through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Indeed, “Starvation was a another apparently abandoned settlement. These events occur in November, shortly af- more chronic concern in the early settlement of Virginia, where the majority of colonists ter the Pilgrims’ arrival, so taking the Natives’ store of corn must have had devastating refused to cultivate—much less eat—native maize, obstinately planting fields with Eng- consequences for them. lish wheat that grew poorly in tidewater Virginia” (Walden 39). Again, Hariot directly In contrast to Smith’s violent response to the superior bargaining position of the challenges fears of transformation through diet when he writes, “I will set downe all the supposed inhospitable Indigenous people at Kecoughtan and Standish’s misappropria- commodities which wee know the countrey by our experience doeth yeld of it selfe for tions of corn, Thomas Morton makes several comments on Indigenous hospitality. In victual, and sustenance of mans life; such as is vsually fed vpon by the inhabitants of the their houses, Morton writes, countrey, as also by vs during the time we were there” (6). In fact, Hariot asserts that the

either the kettle is on with fish or flesh, by no allowance: or else, the fire is imployed English rejection of Indigenous foodstuffs was because of their own rather “soft” Euro-

20 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 21 pean diet: For both Hariot and Smith, the ability to withstand the New World climate, environment, and diet confirms an English “Martiall” identity—it also asserts that the English Some [detractors of the enterprise] also were of a nice bringing vp, only in cities or body itself is suited to the colonization of this new place, a pseudo-manifest destiny of townes, or such as neuer (as I may say) had seene the world before. Because there belonging. were not to bee found any English cities, nor such faire houses, nor at their owne Bradford’s initial description of the Massachusetts’ coast expresses a lament for the wish any of their olde accustime daintie food, nor any soft beds of downe or feath- lack of similar elements of Hariot’s and Smith’s critique of “soft” Englishmen. Arriving in ers: the countrey was to them miserable, & their reports thereof according. (6) the “desolate wilderness,” “they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to enter-

Theodor de Bry’s etchings from John White’s Virginia drawings reinforce Hariot’s point tain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies; no houses or much less towns to repair to, to on the decadence of some of the English colonists by stressing the moderation of the seek for succour” (Bradford 161). However, what is significantly different is the Pilgrims’ Indigenous diet as an “exemple,” (as does Morton) while the comparison of the Pict il- strongly expressed reliance on the spirit. Sustenance, much of which came from foraging lustrations visually reveal a stronger-stomached descent that is the ideal colonist of the and Indigenous foodstuffs, reaffirmed Bradford and his fellow Puritans’ godliness. Here, tract. If any transformation occurs, this implies, it will be to a hardier precursor of Eng- in a sense, “trash” is turned to spiritual affirmation. This process can also be seen in the lish identity that has been endangered by soft beds and “daintie” foods. Smith’s Virginia captivity narrative of another Puritan, Mary Rowlandson. Taken captive during a raid contains a startlingly similar claim about the “softness” of the enterprise’s detractors: conducted in February 1676 by the Nipmuck, Wampanoag, and Narragansett on the settlement of Lancaster—a retributive raid following the massacre of six hundred Indig- Being for most part of such tender educations, and small experience in Martiall ac- enous people by the colonizers during King Philip’s War (Kolodny 184-5). cidents, because they found not English Cities, nor such faire houses, nor at their Rowlandson’s initial reaction to the food offered by her captors, like the Virginia owne wishes any of their accustomed dainties, with feather beds and downe pil- colonists to Smith, is to call it “filthy trash” (Rowlandson par. 27). But, much like the lows, Tavernes and Alehouses in every breathing place, neither such plentie of gold affirmation Bradford asserts, Rowlandson scripturally justifies her ordeal and its dietary and silver and dissolute liberty, as they expected, had little or no care of any thing, impositions. She comments on eating horse liver, although interrupted while frying it but to pamper their bellies, to fly away with our Pinnaces, or procure their meanes and forced, “so that I was fain to take the rest and eat it as it was, with the blood about to returne for England. For the Country was to them a misery, a ruine, a death, a my mouth” (Rowlandson par. 29). She eats, “Indian Corn,” horse hooves, bear, pulses, hell, and their reports here, and their actions there according. (39) acorns, horse, and ground nuts. At one point, she carries a piece of raw bear in her pocket 22 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 23 two days before she has the opportunity to cook it (Rowlandson par. 34). The issue in held her captive and concludes, Rowlandson’s account is not just what she is eating, but how she is eating it—often raw, It is said, Psal. 81. 13, 14. Oh, that my People had hearkned to me, and Israel undercooked, or rotten. However, her accounts of eating this food is usually followed had walked in my wayes, I should soon have subdued their Enemies, and turned by some sort of scriptural allusion—often that such “filthy” food tasted “savoury” in her my hand against their Adversaries. But now our perverse and evil carriages mouth—what Heidi Oberholtzer Lee notes as “One of the most common taste topoi in in the sight of the Lord, have so offended him, that instead of turning his the Bible in early American captivity narratives […] the transformation from bitterness hand against them, the Lord feeds and nourishes them up to be a scourge to sweetness” (69). As Oberholtzer Lee argues, Rowlandson, as is Bradford (and to a less- to the whole Land. (par. 64) er degree these attitudes are inherent in other examples of colonial discourse that I have cited above), employs a “gustatory theology” which she defines as “a system of belief that Much more so than the survival of Bradford’s Plymouth or Winthrop’s Massachusetts articulates religious truths and understandings of the divine and spiritual world through Bay colonies by incorporating Indigenous foodstuffs into their diets, Rowlandson’s trial gastronomical language” (65). Thus, while “Rowlandson began to describe her mode strongly affirms the godly ability to maintain identity because of not only what she eats, of eating in ways that appear more Indian than English” (Herrmann 46), the scriptural but also in terms of how she eats and prepares it. The humoral body as microcosm of overlay within the narrative delineates “the idea that captivity transforms taste and that God’s creation makes Rowlandson’s body a microcosm of the godly Puritan community. the sinner and the saved can be divided along lines of appetite” (Oberholtzer Lee 72). Although the foraging conditions imposed by King Philip’s War are responsible Thus, as Oberholtzer Lee concludes, Rowlandson’s “tastes have become more godly, not for the dietary conditions that the Narragansets and Rowlandson experience in her nar- more native” (80)—her digestive system has not “gone native.” Nor does she experience rative, the supposed “poor,” often uncooked diet of the Indigenous peoples also plays any difficulty later in digesting “Christian” food like de Aquilar did after living for eight into representations of their pseudo-racial inferiority. As Chaplin states, “The early racial years with the Maya. idiom that the English applied to Indians was distinctive because it declared that the na- For both Bradford and Rowlandson, the “gustatory theology” of Puritanism is a tives lacked the physical ability to thrive in their homeland” (231-2). The European dis- form of spiritual trial. Bradford sees it in terms of the Puritan exodus to the New World; eases that ravaged the Indigenous population also reinforced these beliefs; however, again, Rowlandson is seeing it in terms of both an individual trial (her survival) and as God’s some dissented from this view, including Morton who praises Indigenous bodies and punishment of the Puritan community, some of whom had turned away from God—as sees them as a result of a temperate diet and de Bry’s etchings at the end of Hariot’s tract. she ends her text, Rowlandson catalogues things eaten by the Indigenous people that Yet Hariot’s latitudinal comparisons ultimately play into the negative representation of 24 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 25 the Indigenous people, as Kupperman states, “Early experience did not destroy the belief “natural” state of “civility”—in essence, to borrow a term from Alfred Crosby, a “neo- that tropical and Mediterranean crops would grow in Virginia. Thomas Hariot and Ralf Europe.” Lane maintained that such plants were not found there because the Indians did not have Rowlandson’s captivity narrative includes one final point to discuss in this article, the knowledge to develop the area’s potential” (1982, 1267). Morton, too, comments on which is another important marker of difference in colonial texts of the period. Separated their lack of salting meat: from her children, Rowlandson at one point asks an Indigenous man if he has seen her son: And I am perswaded, that if they knew the benefit of Salte (as they may in

time,) and the meanes to make salte meate fresh againe, they would endeav- he answered me, that such a time his master roasted him [her son], and that er to preserve fishe for winter, as well as corne, and that if any thinge bring himself did eat a piece of him, as big as his two fingers, and that he was very them to civility, it will be the use of Salte, to have foode in store, which is a good meat: But the Lord upheld my Spirit, under this discouragement; and chiefe benefit in a civilized Commonwealth. (43) I considered their horrible addictedness to lying. (par. 40)

The notion that the Indigenous peoples did not take advantage of their environment Although she deflects the concern for her son onto another stereotype—the lying In- to develop and preserve foodstuffs, some of which they ate raw, is a significant marker digene—her comment points to another dietary error. In the early modern period, as of difference, as well as further justification of European colonialism. Anthony Pagden Pagden notes, notes that, cannibalism was, above all else, a failure to distinguish what is fitting as The consumption of raw things—especially of raw living things—was, like food from what is not. Cannibals were guilty not only of evidently anti- nudity, a sign of technological inadequacy, of the barbarians’ inability to social acts: in eating their fellow men they were committing a simple, but modify significantly his environment […]. But eating raw things was also, radical, category mistake [which violated] the hierarchical divisions of [… in some sense, ‘unnatural’ because it indicated a failure to understand that God’s] creation. (85-6) food, like everything else in nature, exists in potentia and must suffer change But, significantly, Claude Rawson asserts, “’cannibalism’ did not exist before 1492” before it becomes actual and hence, in this case, edible. (88-9). (69). The term comes from an erroneous identification by Columbus, who either only What lies in potentia in the New World is a “nature” that needs to be brought into its heard what he wanted to hear or misheard “Cariba” as “Caniba,” “which is to say, the 26 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 27 people of the khan. But he also understands that according to the Indians these persons warriers that are in the Indias, by the Spaniards report, who are neuer able have dogs’ heads (from the Spanish cane, ‘dog’) with which, precisely, they eat people” to conquer them […] by all the Spaniards reportes, who make them [the (Todorov 30). “Cannibalism” comes to mark a significant difference from the European “Cannibals”] Deuils in respect of men. (Hakluyt 529) context to the New World in terms of climate, foodstuffs, geography, and ethnicity: The tract is dependent on Spanish “reports,” rather than any evidence of such practices The word ‘cannibal’ […] is not, like ‘anthropophagy,’ a word that signals its witnessed by the English. own meaning etymologically, and which could not easily mean anything John Davis’ and Martin Frobisher’s voyages in search of the Northwest Passage else. Instead, it is a geographical and ethnic term. It points a finger at a par- demonstrate the conceptual link between eating food raw and cannibalism. Davis’ sec- ticular people. (Rawson 68-9) ond voyage recounts the assumed beastliness of the Inuit who “eat all theyr meat raw” (Hakluyt 782). The account of Frobisher’s second voyage is more detailed on the eating Once Columbus records his misunderstanding, colonial discourse becomes marked by habits of the Inuit: the word “cannibal,” and the term spreads widely throughout the geography of the New

World—from Columbus in the Caribbean, to Ralegh’s Guiana, to Gilbert’s Newfound- They eate their meate all rawe, both fleshe, fishe, and foule, or something land, to Davis’ and Frobisher’s far North. Indeed, some English accounts, such as A true perboyled with bloud and a little water, which they drinke […] such grasse Report of the late disoueries, and possession taken in the right of the Crowne of England of as the countrie yeeldeth they plucke upp, and eate, not daintily, or sallet- the Newfound Lands even includes Columbus’ canine misunderstanding of the term in wise to allure their stomaches to appetite: but for necessities sake, without reporting of cannibals “whose foode is mans flesh, and haue teeth like dogges” (Hakluyt either salt, oyles, or washing, like brute beasts deuouring the same. They 706). And English accounts of the West Indies often include Spanish reports that mark neither vse table, stoole, or table cloth for comelines: but when they are their expectations of encountering cannibals. The voyage made by the worshipful M. Iohn imbrued with bloud, knuckle deepe, and their kniues in like sort, they vse Haukins Esquire, now knight, Captaine of the Iesus of Lubek states that the slave-trading their tongues as apt instrumentes to licke them cleane: in doing whereof, expedition, they are assured to loose none of their victuals. (Hakluyt 627)

came to an Island of the Cannybals, called Sancta Dominica […]. The In both narratives, this behaviour leads, without any eye-witness evidence to the conclu- Cannybals of that Island, and also other adiacent, are the moste desperate sion that the Inuit are cannibals: “I thinke them rather Anthropophagi, or deuourers of

28 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 29 mans flesh, then otherwise: for that there is not fleshe or fishe, which they finde dead hunger woulde inforce them in the ende to eate one another. (Hakluyt 566) (smell it neuer so filthily) but they will eate it, as they finde it, without any other dressing. Notable is the fact that Phillips does not specifically identify the Indigenous peoples, A loathsome thing, either to the beholders, or hearers” (Hakluyt 627). Although Frobish- the “Sauages or Infidels,” as cannibalistic threats to the crew to be set ashore; rather, the er uses the term “Antrhorpophagi,” his conclusion is, arguably, based on the geographical possibility is with the crew itself. Similar to the “necessity” that drives Smith to forcibly and ethnic associations of “cannibalism” that go back to Columbus’ initial contact. appropriate Indigenous’ corn, it is “necessity” that drives the English to cross the bound- However, while Europeans may have perceived cannibalism as entirely beyond the ary into cannibalism. In addition, the abhorrence of English reactions to purported In- pales of human society and Godly order, this distinction between colonizer and colo- digenous cannibalism can be contrasted with not only the rather matter-of-fact account nized was also problematic because, in English writings, eye witness accounts of canni- cited above, but also with another representation that employs romance conventions. In balism often involve the English themselves, challenging the etymology of “cannibal.” As The Voyage of master Hore and diuers other Gentlemen, to Newfound land, and Cape Breton, Eden points out, “Accounts of [shipwreck] survivors who ate their dead companions was in the yeere 1536, a tale for which Hakluyt himself “rode 200. miles onely to learne the nothing new to English readers. It was a practice called the law of the sea” (10). Richard whole trueth” (518), we can trace a progressive degeneration of “civilized” behaviour Hakluyt’s Principall Navigations, for example, includes a number of English shipwreck and the confusion of dietary categories negatively ascribed to the Indigene. Trapped in cannibalism stories ranging from the possibility to the act. In A discourse written by one ice, the starving crew initially takes to eating “rawe herbes and rootes” before turning Miles Phillips Englishman, one of the company put a shore in the West Indies by M. Iohn to cannibalism (Hakluyt 518). While there is a sense of abhorrence to the cannibalistic Hawkins in the yeere 1568, some of Hawkins’ crew, practices of some crew members when they are discovered, the narrative resolves this being thus oppressed with famine on the one side, and danger of drowning through a romance reincorporation of the cannibals into English society—“M. Buts was on the other, not knowing where to find reliefe, we began to be in woonder- so changed in the voyage with hunger and miserie, that sir William his father and my full despayre, and we were of many mindes, amongst whome there were a Lady his mother, knewe him not to be their sonne, vntill they found a certaine secret great many that did desire our Generall to set them on lande, making theyr marke which was a wart vpon one of his knees” (Hakluyt 519). Whereas the term “canni- choyse rather to submit themselues to the mercie of the Sauages or Infidels bal” “points a finger at a particular people” (Rawson 69) who inherently confuse dietary then longer to hazard themselues at Sea, where they very well saw, that if categories and transgress divine order, Buts is not substantially changed by his ordeal and they should all remayne together, if they perished not by drowning, yet is rehabilitated through familial recognition and reincorporation into English society.

30 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 31 Food provided more than just subsistence for early modern colonizers; it provided Works Cited them with a way to structure their perceptions of Indigenous peoples as inferior or even bestial. As Earle argues, early colonial tracts demonstrate that “’Race’ […] was in part a Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation: from the Original Manuscript. With a Report question of digestion” (697). While humoral theory gradually gave way to more scien- of the Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts. Project tific understandings of how the human body digests food through the latter half of the Gutenberg, 2008. seventeenth century, many of the assumptions made in the period of first contact and Cañizares-Esquerra, Jorge. “New World, New Stars: Patriotic Astrology and the Inven- the initial establishment of English colonies that were based on diet persist even today as tion of Indian and Creole Bodies in Colonial Spanish America, 1600-1650.” Amer- unfortunate stereotypes of Indigenous peoples in North America. ican Historical Review 104.1 (1999):33-68. Chaplin, Joyce E. “Natural Philosophy and an Early Racial Idiom in North America: Comparing English and Indian Bodies.” The William and Mary Quarterly 54.1 (1997): 229-52. Crosby, Alfred. Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986. Earle, Rebecca. “’If You Eat Their Food…’: Diets and Bodies in Early Colonial Spanish America.” The American Historical Review 115.3 (2010): 688-713. Eden, Trudy. The Early American Table: Food and Society in the New World. Dekalb: North- ern Illinois UP, 2008. Hakluyt, Richard. The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English nation, made by Sea or ouer Land, to the most remote and farthest distant Quarters of the earth

at any time within the compasse of these 1500. yeeres. London: 1589. Hariot, Thomas.A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia of the commodities and of the nature and manners of the naturall inhabitants. Discouered by the English Colony there seated by Sir Richard Greinuile Knight in the yeere 1585. Which 32 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 33 Remained vnder the gouernement of twelue monethes, At the speciall charge and direc- parative Ethnology. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982. tion of the Honourable Sir Walter Raleigh Knight lord Warden of the Stanneries Who Rawson, Claude. “Unspeakable Rites: Cultural Reticence and the Cannibal Question.” therein hath beene fauoured and authorised by her Maiestie and her letters patents: This Social Research 66.1 (1999): 167-93. fore books is made in English By Thomas Hariot seruant to the abouenamed Sir Walter, Rowlandson, Mary. Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, 1682. 2002 a member of the Colony, and there imployed in discouering. London: 1590. http://eada.lib.umd.edu/text-entries/soveraignty-and-goodness-of-god/ Herrmann, Rachel B. “’Their Filthy Trash:’ Taste, Eating, and Work in Mary Rowland- Smith, John. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: With son’s Captivity Narrative.” Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas the Names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governoours From Their First Begin- 12.1-2 (2015): 45-70. ning Ano: 1584. To This Present 1624. With the Procedings of Those Severall Colonies Kolodny, Annette. “Among the Indians: the Uses of Captivity.” Women’s Studies Quarterly and the Accidents That Befell Them in All Their Journyes and Discoveries. Also the 21.3 (1993): 184-95. Maps and Descriptions of All Those Countryes, Their Commodities, People, Govern- Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. “The Puzzle of the American Climate in the Early Colonial ment, Customes, and Religion Yet Knowne. Divided into Sixe Bookes. By Captaine Period.” The American Historical Review 87.5 (1982): 1262-89. John Smith, Sometymes Governour in Those Countryes & Admirall of New England. ---. “Fear of Hot Climates in the Anglo-American Colonial Experience.” The William and London: 1624. http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/smith Mary Quarterly 41.2 (1984): 213-40. Tillyard, E. M. W. The Elizabethan World Picture. Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1972. Lee, Heidi Oberholtzer. “’The Hungry Soul:’ Sacramental Appetite and the Transforma- Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America: the Question of the Other. New York: Harper tion of Taste in Early American Travel Writing.” Early American Studies, an Inter- & Row, 1984. disciplinary Journal 3.1 (2005): 65-93. Walden, Dan. “’The Bounty of Providence:’ Food and Identity in William Byrd’sThe Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to the Science of Mythology, History of the Dividing Line.” The Southern Literary Journal 47.1 (2014): 35-53. volume 1. Trans. . John and Doreen Weightman. New York: Harper Torchbooks, Winthrop, John. The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630-1649. Ed. Richard S. Dunn and 1964. Laetitia Yeandle. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1996. Morton, Thomas. New English Canaan, or New Canaan. Containing an Abstract of New England. Composed in three Bookes. London: 1637. Pagden, Anthony. The Fall of Natural Man: the American Indian and the Origins of Com- 34 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 35

OFF TO THE FUTURE explain or err on the side of caution. I need to see, to undo the damage ‘Take away his camera and he’ll draw on and find out everything for myself. his eyeballs with a felt-tip pen.’ We can argue about the secrets – Iain Sinclair, The Last London of the past but I am looking forward, ready to go yet full of regrets. Hold my hand and we are off Compulsion and a flying heart. Nothing to the future, walking sideways will go away, nothing stays the same. and dodging our own reasons He is behind the curve or ahead of as well as the camera’s flash, the game, never quite where he wants mumbling damaged prayers. to be. How very sad, how lovely, how does he manage to cope? Picture this: animal tracks and bone, black glass, —Rupert M. Loydell Sunday morning childhoods. Gone or tidied up. Memory fades away, the past is open to interpretation. The darkness falls as flowers do, wilting in the light; although we are earthbound we can’t wait to get away. Don’t make me choose, don’t make me

36 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 37 Sentry in Black and White Sue Matheson

Critical Issues in Research Ethics Involving Human Subjects

by Jim Gough,

Athabasca University, Alberta

Introduction: In order to begin an informed discussion, in which there is a possibility of accurately communicating important information, identifying important conflicts and the basis for relevant decisions, it is useful to set up some parameters. Parameters guide discussion they do not control it. 1Parameters set limits which are conditional and can be altered given the content and the nature of the discussions they serve to initiate. Parameters fluidly frame issues within manageable limits.2 So, as part of the communicative process, I open up this discussion with some considerations of the method of making ethical decisions, the methods of science and what decisions these methods serve to initiate in cases of research on human subjects. 3

1. This idea of the use of parameters in critical discussions were developed further in "The Psychological Parameters of Argumentation," Jim Gough, Past and Present, Vol. 4, October, 1985. 2. This is in contrast with parameters used by fundamentalists to stop challenges to the authority of behaviour structured basic beliefs, see, for example, Images of History: Kant, Benjamin, Freedom and the Human Subect, by Richard Eldridge, Oxford University Press, 2016, 93, 98-99, 3. This article was initially based on a presentation made as the keynote address, June 13th, 2008, to the Alberta Community Colleges and Technical Institutions Workshop on Research Ethics, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. I am grateful for helpful comments made by members of the workshop during and after the presentation. This workshop was supported by the Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical Institutions (AACTI). Subsequent to the presentation I have made numerous additions well beyond the presentation. 38 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 39 After each section, I offer an example in the hope that this will initiate critical balancing argument. So, it is not unusual but rather to be expected that one value will be discussion of this and other examples. After the discussion of the content and example, given a priority in one situation but not in another since the balancing argument always there is at least one resource provided in the body of the text for further critical evaluation. takes account of rebuttals or counter considerations in making decisions. Specific counter None of the issues raised is intended to negate any reasonable process of inquiry or considerations in one situation may be different from those in another situation making it questioning or to pessimistically portray the situation of human subjects in scientific incumbent on anyone making a decision to pay careful attention to information that both research as practically impossible or theoretically laden with a minefield of potential supports one decision and information that might cause one to reject this same decision. explosive disasters. This method is not the same as the approach taken in making scientific discoveries, since there is no direct empirical component and it is not an inductive argument but rather a What I both expect and hope will happen as a result of the following considerations conductive, good reasons, argument pattern. is an opening-up of discussion about some of the controversial topics and issues associated with making decisions about the use of human subjects in scientific research. There is Example: It is generally crucially important to tell the truth. However, in war time no reluctance on my part to participate in self-criticism and critical reflection that could situations, it might be necessary to tell the enemy a lie in order to protect human lives. lead to revision or the abandonment of any or all claims.4 Jean Paul Sartre builds much of his approach to ethics on the example of his student who pondered whether he should abandon his mother and his support of her for a position Method: The method most often employed in making ethical decisions is now some form in the resistance army or not, with Sartre placing the responsibility squarely on the of an approach labeled by John Rawls as Reflective Equilibrium.5 Reflective equilibrium student for the implications of either decision—good or bad. This example has left some involves a comparison of alternative perspectives, values and considerations so as to reach pondering whether any significant ethical decision is an explicit dilemma immune to any a reconciliation of competing interests, values, communities and situations that issue rational resolution. But, on the contrary, there is no reason to despair, although there are in a determinate decision not a holding pattern or confused indeterminate outcome. many who hold this idea. This is a matter of balancing different interests, values or principles in order to make a choice. Priorities cannot be established in the abstract but only in the practice making the Example: In our article “Developing Ethical Decision-Making Skills: How Textbooks 4. This presentation was offered to a group of faculty and administrators facing the creation of institutional ethics Fail Students”, Jim Gough and Anne Price, (Chapter 42 in Readings for Technical in research committees to satisfy the requirements of federal and provincial funding agencies. So, the audience was a mixture of people from essentially technical institutions to degree granting and brokering institutions, each with varying differences in research projects and programs. Communication, edited by Jennifer MacLennan, Oxford University Press, 2008, 321- 5. Rawls, John, A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971 later revised 1999. Criticism of his approach can be found in Reading Rawls: Critical Studies on Rawls’ ‘Theory of Justice’,Norman Daniels, New York, 330) we evaluated ways that most textbooks in business communication failed to Basic Books, 1975. 40 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 41 provide a viable approach to making ethical decisions, making the mistake that flow Values: There are general two kinds of values involved in research ethics; epistemological charts, shopping lists and check lists could serve in place of making an informed ethical values and ethical values. Epistemological values in knowing, understanding or decision that negotiated conflicts, principles and special circumstances. comprehending are based on information, facts, or data. Information is valuable because of how it enhances our knowledge or understanding. It is important to have information Resource: This argument pattern is discussed inAn Introduction to Reasoning, Stephen but it is also important to be able to use this information to make good decisions. Toulmin, Richard Rieke and Allan Janik, Macmillan Publishing, NY, 1979, p. 320. Information is not important in itself but it is important if it can be critically evaluated so Disclaimer: Since ethical decisions are made by all of us on a regular basis, there are as to be used well in making effective decisions. Ethical values, in general, establish a value some popular misconceptions about the nature of ethics that need to be addressed and relationship between knowledge and the use of this knowledge to make good decisions so countered. There are, for example, two claims about ethics that are not plausible: ethics that on the basis of relevant and sufficient knowledge, as well as a consideration of values, is subjective or relative, and ethics is about irresolvable dilemmas involving different we know not about what is the case (factual knowledge) but about what should be the case values. If ethics were relative or subjective, then we would find no sociological evidence or what we ought to do (prescriptive claim). Knowing what we ought to do, occasion the of shared ethical values across cultures, societies or communities; but we do find lots use of references to: obligations, duties, rights, laws, and considerations that control, not of evidence to support shared ethical values. If ethics were about dilemmas, which are describe, decisions and behaviour that follows these decisions. two equally plausible but incompatible choices, then there would be no way of making Resource: “The Misuse of Non-Argumentative Approaches in Practical Ethics”, Jim ethical decisions. But, we do have ways of making viable ethical decisions in all kinds Gough, College Quarterly, Fall, 2005. of circumstances where there are conflicts of value; conflicts, however, are not dilemmas and so can be resolved in principle. As well, human beings regardless of circumstances Decision 1: The first decision involves whether there is a need to know the information that share common goals such that “despite some clear disagreements…people from different could be gained by conducting an experiment of discovery or whether the information parts of the world share common goals like the desirability of promoting people’s health, that might be discovered is basically of no significant or relevant use to anyone. This happiness, opportunities, and cooperation and the wisdom of stopping pollution, is referred to as the relevance test. The point of research is to advance knowledge and oppression, torture and exploitation”. [318] understanding of an important area of study. There is vagueness in the reference of need to know, namely (i) does science need to know, (ii) does humanity or the international Resource: Moral Relativism: A Reader, Paul K. Moser and Thomas L. Carson, Oxford community need to know, (iii) does some particular society need to know or (iv) does University Press, 2001. 42 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 43 some segment or special group need to know? There is a potential for a competition need to know some information that only a scientific discovery could provide, the between who needs to know and why they need to know the information that could separation is not so clear. So, we need to pose the question of whether or not there is be provided by a particular scientific experiment. There needs to be a balance in these a special interest group that needs to know the information. We can ask, for example, different needs to know; for example the need to know of science (i) could be in conflict whether or not there is an ideological, political or commercial interest behind the inverted with the need to know of some society or other (iii) or even some sub-group of any scientific need for information. While science might claim to want to know for its own particular society. There is a potential for conflict. sake, political ideologies and commercial interests have no such esoteric interest. Rather, their interests are instrumental, interests in how knowledge can be used to support other Example: Some religious or secular group may not need to know and may not want to non-intrinsic interests; for example, supporting a political ideology or individual profit. know (i) how to perform certain kinds of in vitro fertilization procedures, or (ii) how On the surface, there is no problem with mixed motives. For example, I drive a small evolution can be understood to work to produce necessary differentiation in species four cylinder truck because I know that it is friendlier to the environment than its bigger within the environment; since such knowledge would not only not serve the interests of mega-truck brothers and I know that it will cost less in gas and maintenance. We might the group but be antithetical to the group’s beliefs and perceived interests. concede that I have done the right thing, chosen the right truck but I’ve done so for two Example: In the Logic of Scientific Discovery,Thomas Kuhn, (Harvard, 1972) describes the different motives which do not necessary complement each other, one other-regarding ways that science progresses not on the basis of cumulative knowledge but on the basis of and one self-regarding. This mixed set of motives has, however, been instrumental in paradigm shifts in knowledge based on the directions and needs of the sociological group taking me to the right choice, to produce the best overall result. Nothing seems to be of scientists at one time and a change in membership of the group at a later time. The wrong in this case. conclusion is that science is not separate from society but an integral part of what different However, we know that where I direct my spending priorities on scientific research societies perceive to be their priorities at different times, making science context-bound might be influenced by motives that are not scientific, not of any significant value to not objectively impartial. humanity, and not of any significant value to society but of politically ideological or Resource: Ethics from Experience, Peter Caws, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, London, commercial value. In this case, science becomes the handmaiden or servant of other 1996, 96-99. interests. The knowledge goals of science are not satisfied but those of special interests are Decision 2: Although we seem to have cleanly separated the various audiences for our satisfied. There is a single motive which may be in conflict with other motives or may be

44 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 45 deceptively hidden behind other motives creating some suspicion. So, if it is possible to conflict which may be resolved by employing HOT as a negotiator. identify a motive, then we need to make sure that we are not guilty of creating black and Resource: The Price of Truth: How Money Affects the Norms of Science,David B. Resnik, white thinking, arguing that this is the only motive anchoring decision making; we need Oxford University Press, 2007.7 to ensure that the motive itself is in evidence and if so whether or not it is problematic Decision 3: In the case of scientific research, there is often a question, issue or problem or unacceptable. The simple identification of a motive is not enough. We have to be able that is addressed in the research project with the overall aim to increase our knowledge to argue that this motive is the only or most probable cause of some decision or behavior, by use of new information. So, the first decision is whether or not to employ an approach isolating this motive from other components of the decision. As well, we need to be able known as (a) a literature search and analysis as the basis for acquiring new knowledge to argue convincingly that this motive has overridden good reasons. to help provide an answer to the question, to help us understand the problem or issue As well, it is important to maintain an honesty, openness and transparency (HOT) in our better, or (b) to use an experiment to collect new information and fit this information scientific transactions so that there will be the possibility of others opening up the process into a thesis or theory which attempts to answer the question or help resolve the issue or we use to public knowledge, understanding and possible critical challenge. It is not just problem. It is important not to overlook (a) as a viable approach especially since, it is often that HOT pays long term benefits to those who employ this in their transactions, the more cost efficient, avoiding redundant and less effective experimental approaches; it does character of the society or community involved as well as the character of the individuals not involve any possible direct harm to animals, human beings, or the environment. It is who compose the community are made demonstrably better by contributing to the sometimes the case that the (a) literature search is used as the benchmark for determining ongoing process of HOT in all scientific dealings. Oddly enough, some behavioural whether an experiment is required or not. However, if it is determined that an experiment scientists document their frustrations at subjects who jeopardize the validity of a , as identified by (b), is the best, most efficient way to gain needed information, then it researcher’s inferences in experiments. This can occur because the subject’s understanding will be useful to go beyond the literature search. Unfortunately, one of the ways that fraud and misuse of the complex informed consent protocol makes them “distrustful and in science can be perpetuated is using (a) literature searches as the sole basis for making recalcitrant” because of their perceived lack of control, causing problems for the scientific claims and not subjecting the information obtained by these searches to controlled pursuit of knowledge.6 There is no dilemma facing the social scientist here between the scientific experimentation and observation following the laws of both inductive and pursuit of scientific knowledge and the restraints of contracted ethical consent, just a deductive logic. Bypassing the latter process has produced questionable potentially

6. Rosnow, Ralph and Robert Rosenthal, People Studying People: Artifacts and Ethics in Behavioural Research, Freeman, fraudulent claims about the Shroud of Turin, Jesus of Nazareth’s disputed burial garment, NY, 1997, 116-117 7. Reviewed by Jim Gough in the American Library Association’s journal, Choice, fall, 2007. 46 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 47 and claims by psychic archeologists to literally see into the past. and so on. These records are often supplemented by current readings using more accurate measurement devices. But this still leaves open the question of the system related issues Resource: Frauds, Mysteries and Science: Science and Pseudoscience in Archeology, Kenneth so then scientists build models, and, more often than not, the computer models are Feder, Mayfield, CA, 1990, 19-22. criticized for their changing predictions (even though this is an asset of such models). I Decision 4: A mixed approach to making a needed discovery may be employed. This have challenged the attempted arguments of so-called global warming deniers elsewhere may begin with an initial literature search (i) along with (ii) some use of constructed but the negative influence of biased ideology over science cannot under estimated even models, thought experiments, mathematical models, physical models or computer models, as the scientific evidence seems overwhelming.8 as well as (iii) an empirical experiment or experiments to produce a reasonable set of Resource: Examples of this approach occur in the following textbooks. Apocalypse Soon? predictions. So, for example, the process may start with a literature search to determine Wagering on Warnings of Global Catastrophe, Stephen J. Haller, McGill-Queens University whether—based on previous research—there are important and relevant questions left Press, Montreal, 2002 and Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution, Joseph unanswered or posed as a result of efforts in the past. These important questions may Romm, Harper Perennial, NY, 2007. invite modeling or portraying the set of possibilities in such a way that one could make some reasonably accurate predictions. If, however, there is a need to ground these models Decision 5: Cost compared to perceived or probable benefit is often the basis for making in some observations, data or facts; then the first two steps could be followed up by a set a decision to do a scientific experiment and how to conduct the experiment. So, for of experiments limited to the parameters set by the initial information provided by the example, in scientific studies involving human subjects, whether the subjects are paid for literature search (i), and the models based on this research. their participation and how much they need to be paid compared to the predicted value of any new information that could be discovered is a cost-benefit analysis. Cost/benefit Example: Some of the research on global warming is done on the basis of what could can be construed in either a narrow view or a wider perspective. In the narrow view, be called a literature search, researching the temperature and weather records over the predicted negative consequences of a particular decision can be limited to only those historical accounts of such recordings. These records are sometimes challenged because of who are direct participants while a wider perspective would include those in personal (a) the regional nature of the recordings, as opposed to global records, (b) the imprecision relationships to those directly affected and members of the community or society of of the measurement devices (for example, water buckets or other containers have varied which the participant is a member. There needs to be a clear understanding of the cost of, somewhat in size and capacity over the period of time when rainfall measurements have for example, an expensive space program and the costs of experiments to establish cures been recorded), (c) the different understandings of science and scientific measurement, 8. Gough, Jim. Defective Arguments Denying and Inconvenient Truth, the Trumpeter, 20, 1, 2016, 55-72 48 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 49 for various cancers. It is in the interest of society (since society is the environment where So, in order to quantify harm in some scientific or statistical sense, we need to be able to science occurs) to evaluate the benefits of some science—in open critical consultation identify which or which combination of harms are involved and what the relationship is with scientists—as opposed to the costs of doing the science and the likelihood that between these various harms. In order to know how to perform a risk analysis we need these costs will be covered by future benefits. This analysis should not be left to either to know what harm (or harms) is being predicted, the seriousness of the harm and the private enterprise or the professional discipline of science. Society has a right to know in likelihood that it will occur. It seems inevitable that the seriousness of the harm will have a process similar to that of informed consent. an irreducibly subjective component since we know that a personal slight to me could have a decidedly different effect than a person slight to someone else, depending on what Example: When a cancer drug was being tested by British and American scientists to experiences of each individual preceded the harm. So, there needs to be some care taken counteract the effects of breast cancer on a large sample of women, it was discovered— in assessing harm especially when predicting its effect on potential victims. well before the end of the trial period established for the experiment—that the effects of the drug were dramatic in their improvement of the situation of women with breast Example: The cost/benefit analysis approach can work when considering pure economic cancer. A medical decision was made to discontinue the trial—well before the planned harm, for example, to compensate people who have suffered some economic harm by termination date-- and give the women receiving a placebo the effective cancer treatment giving them a monetary compensation for lost income, lost revenue, lost profit, and drug. In this case, on balance, the medical/social decision overrode the scientist’s so on. But it is a mistake to assume that non-economic harms can be dealt with using objection to an incomplete trial. Whether this was the right decision or not remains the same analysis. Many disadvantaged groups in Canada (Residential School victims, open to considerable critical discussion. LGBTQ groupe political discrimination), for example, have sought not just monetary compensation but sometimes more importantly they have sought an apology as part of Resource: “Informed (but Uneducated) Consent”, Franz J. Ingelfinger, in Ethical Issues process of reconciliation between victim and victimizer or the proxy for the victim or in Professional Life, edited by Joan C. Callahan, Oxford University Press, 1988, 180-182. victimizer. 9 Decision 6: Sometimes when we employ the cost/benefit analysis we substitute the notion Example: The now infamous case of Ford Motor Company documented in most business of harm for cost and good or good results for benefit. Generally we consider that it is wrong ethics texts in which the company misused cost-benefit analysis to risk human lives based to harm someone else needlessly or for our own satisfaction without any consideration of on a comparison of insurance payouts in relation to providing a one hundred dollar part the other who is harmed. Of course the idea of “harm” covers a wide range of possibilities: 9. Gough, Jim, Tera Dahl-Lang, Elaine Spencer. No Regrets: Suggested Improvements for Public Apologies, Journal physical harm, psychological harm, emotional harm, and economic harm to name a few. of Social Work Ethics and Values, 11, 2, 2014, 12-20 50 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 51 installed to help prevent the gas tanks of Pinto cars from easily exploding on minor rear consent. Even those who were informed were not capable of understanding or making use impacts. of the information in their decisions to agree to be subjects. Their marginalized situation in society, as prisoners of war, prisoners in current civil jails, university students inside Example: Many elderly medical patients are, sometimes justifiably, worried about the an institution where their cooperation was a matter of loyalty to educational principles, allocation of medical resources on purely economic or cost/benefit analyses since their made them vulnerable to abuse. situation in life may be unfairly compared to younger patients.The elimination of patient’s advocates in some care homes and hospitals caused patient’s stress level to rise as Example: In two books, Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison (New the voice of their concerns was silenced. 10 York: Routledge, 1999) and Sentenced to Science: One Black Man’s Story of Imprisonment in America 11Allen Hornblum documents the current use of prisoners in medical Resource: “Forgiveness, Apology, Acknowledgement and Reconciliation”, a paper experiments conducted by the US Army and pharmaceutical companies concluding that presented by Jim Gough and Mano Daniel to the Canadian Society for the Study of “the many men and women incarcerated in the Philadelphia Prison System who chose to Practical Ethics, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of British become a part of the medical research program were no better than throwaway people, Columbia, Vancouver, BC, June 2, 2008. part of the conveyor belt of research subjects used for exploitation and experimentation. Decision 7: To what extent is the decision to follow through on a scientific project Desperate, ill informed, and easily taken advantage of, they had little recourse if anything based on the need to know some non-scientific, commercial, political or ideological went wrong.” (65) Turning state prisons over to the contracted management of private information. Funding for much research is now provided more and more by private companies seems to have opened up new ways for these companies to pursue more enterprise and there have been some startling examples of the use of human subjects to income sources, including the use of public facilities to help private pharmaceutical test pharmaceuticals which have no significant effects on the health and well-being of companies develop their human-based drug testing research programs. human beings but are primarily cosmetic. Military based research on human subjects Decision 8: Natural science and social science share a more or less common methodological to test mind-altering drugs does not have an enviable history in Canada. The history tradition (except that in the social sciences there is both a quantitative approach to of the failed experiments in Nazi Germany to establish politically-ideologically biased measurements and a qualitative approach, while the latter is not common in the natural physical, genetic components of Aryanism does not need repeating. A number of these sciences). However, in most experiments in natural science there is a deliberate attempt to experiments were conducted on subjects who were not informed and did not give their 10. Gough, Jim and Lillie Lum, Volunteer Governance of Health Services in Canada: Redundant or Relevant, Healthcare separate the experimenter from the content of the world that is the subject of the experiment. Management Forum, Vol. 18, No.1, 2008. 18-22 11. Reviewed by Jim Gough in the American Library Association’s journal Choice, winter, 2007. 52 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 53 There is a deliberate attempt to separate, in language, approach and methodology, the domain of open and accessible documented procedures. The experiences that most of us person doing the experiment from the subject of the experiment to avoid bias, and a have of making good or bad ethical decisions most often happen in the private domain. misreading of observations. When this distancing is employed as an attitude to doing However, when it comes to assessing the situation of research subjects as part of scientific experiments in social science involving human subjects, there are serious issues about experiments, the ethical decisions occur in the public domain. So, there needs to be a how it is possible and whether distancing, to achieve objectivity, should be attempted shift in our approach to making decisions in the public domain. The movement must be at all. The commoditization or objectification of human subjects may be different from made towards accountability. The shift needs to be one in which persons making ethical the commoditization or objectification of objects in the natural world or systems of decisions or decisions that involve ethical concerns, position themselves to take public natural ecology. Objectivity is part of an aim or goal that may both illuminate us with responsibility for their decisions. There is a need to develop argumentative strategies to detached and impartial information or harm us with a detached and impartial attitude to support decisions with good reasons, reasons that are capable of convincing others that information that we should be involved with on the basis of a personal relationship. So, the best choice was made under the prevailing circumstances. The public has a vital for example, some environmentalists now argue that the problem with the natural world interest in decisions made in the public domain. is that human beings have taken an impartial, dispassionate and disconnected attitude Resource: Bioethics in Canada, Bernard Dickens, David Roy, and John Williams, Prentice- toward this world. This is unlike the world inhabited by our indigenous ancestors whose Hall, 1994, 310-335 physical, spiritual/metaphysical and emotional life was encased in the natural world and Decision 10: The final decision involves education. Information about how information not deliberately separated from it.12 is assessed, how decisions are made, what policies are followed, the format for applying Resource: The Impossibility of the Wilderness and the Possibility of the Wilderness, Jim Gough, processes and procedures, are all open to be revised. This can only happen if there is an paper presented to the Environmental Studies Association of Canada conference, June 4, approach to deciding which includes an educational aim; that is, the process of making 2008, the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Vancouver, BC. decisions must include the idea that it is important to continue to educate the decision- Decision 9: Distribution of information and objectivity or impartiality are important makers and all the participants in the decision-making process to provide the basis for considerations for both science and ethics. Research is done in the public domain, making improvements. We’ve argued that this should happen across all college curriula.13 using public resources and with the approval of the public, either implicitly or explicitly. Through education we will come to realize that no process or set of procedures, no matter

Ethical decisions can occur in the private domain of personal relationships or the public 13. Gough, Jim, Bill McKay and Bruce Wallace. Educating 21st Century Learners in Canadian Colleges, the Quint, 12. Friesen, John. W. First Nations of the Plains: Creative, Adaptive and Enduring, Detselig, 1999, 33-48. Vo.8, No.1, December, 2015, 8-34. 54 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 55 how well considered or how well articulated, is always open to revision, alteration and the process of dying anyway. However, this violates the fundamental principle that the replacement. For all procedures depend on the people who apply them to, for example, individual should make this decision and not society, that the dignity and sanctity of the (i) overcome self-interest in favour of the interest of others, (ii) to overcome a focus on individual’s person be protected right up until s/he is dead. There is clearly a connection the present circumstances and relegate the future to a closet as yet unopened, and (iii) between the scientific development of transplantation technology, anti-rejection drugs, to focus on abstract considerations of principles and precedent when the real concern is and viable operating procedures and the introduction and continued use of the brain people and knowledge to help them survive in their circumstances. death criterion, which opens up some serious ethical issues and poses some important ethical questions. Example: Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarian ethical theory, identified the situation in his Handbook of Political Fallacies (introduction by Crane Brinton, Harper Torchbooks, Resource: Death and Donation: Rethinking Brain Death as a Means for Procuring US, 1962, 230): “Towards the advancement of the public interest, all that most public- Transplantable Organs, D. Scott Henderson, Pickwick Publications, 2011.14 spirited man, which is as much as to say the most virtuous of men, can do is to do his best Conclusion: In an environment of open discussion, the fair and equal consideration of to bring the public interest (meaning his own personal share in it) as often as possible alternative points of views and counter considerations, the possibilities for making good into coincidence, and as seldom as possible into repugnance with his private interests.” ethical decisions about the treatment of research subjects is good. In an environment of

Example: There is a current debate about the use of the brain death criterion to decide static and fixed decision making with authority resting on procedures and not on expert, when someone becomes a viable transplant donor. The use of hearts and other donors authoritative knowledge, and a preoccupation with legally sanctioned rules or precedents often requires that their harvesting and transplantation takes place while they are still over considerations of personal relationships and the advancement of knowledge, the operating, so it was decided that brain death would be the determinate of human death. chances of making good ethical decisions are bleak. If it were cardio-pulmonary death as previously considered, prior to the introduction of Instead, we need to constantly question procedures, embrace criticism for the viable transplant procedures, then the heart, lungs and so on could possibly be of no use valuable insights it can provide, and proceed as if we are collaborating members of the since they were dead. Since it is not possible to transplant a brain, it is essentially useless crew but by no means the captain. The crew is a disparate set of individuals with the for transplantation purposes, so its death would suffice to protect the transplantation clear interest of navigating the best route but with varying degrees of expert knowledge vital organs like the heart and kidney. The use of this criterion hinges on the utilitarian and information. There needs to be a balance so that the scientist doesn’t win all the principle that more people could likely use these organs than the individual who is in 14. Reviewed by Jim Gough in the American Library Association’s journal, Choice, Fall, 2012 56 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 57 contests and society’s interest does not override every scientific consideration, where how to critically evaluate information towards creating good election decisions.16 That knowledge predominates over procedure. It is this transparency or openness to revision task may not be completely fulfilled but its mandate remains a guidepost for those who or change which is fundamentally important to the establishment of a process within teach philosophy or any other discipline areas where critical analysis of information the context of an institution, an institution with varying degrees of expertise and varying takes priority over the regurgitation of information through the application of multiple degrees of ethical expediency or proficiency. This means that appeal processes should choice tests. With the manipulation of beliefs by technology so prevalent through media be embraced and not avoided.15 By embracing appeals one opens up the possibility of sources like computers, internet, phones and tablets, it remains a pressing concern change, acknowledges the possibility of institutional mistakes, errors or omissions, and that the consumer be not only discriminating but also critically prepared to challenge generally enhances a context of learning and improving on what is to what could be. information that is fed through the filter of educational entertainment.17 The borders are smudged by the merging of the means of easy access to information dressed up in the Finally, if one were in an ideal world and were to have the authority to establish guise of entertainment. a body of individuals to evaluate and monitor proposals for research involving human subjects, it might involve a set of individuals whose expertise and experience was capable of contributing to (a) the best ethical decisions possible, (b) the best use of science to produce discoveries that were important and relevant, (c) the best approach to doing science which minimized risks to vulnerable members of society, and (d) the best approach to advancing knowledge of epistemological and ethical values to the general community or society. This is, of course, a tall order, but it might involve the real instantiation of a Rawlsian set of choosers, not behind a veil of ignorance as in the imagined Rawlsian situation but rather individuals having the character and integrity (instead) to choose well. The change up is from situation to character or chooser’s ethos. The critical thinking movement got a foothold in the United States in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s at 16. Today with the proliferation of a US President who abandons truth-telling and embraces fake news, this skill the initiative of people who wanted to educate citizens in the United States who knew is clearly more needed than ever and every discipline should include either a course in critical thinking or integrate critical thinking throughout the course in practical problem-solving exercises. 15. Those who reject the appeal process do so because they falsely believe that appeals undermine the authority of the 17. This theme is taken up further in “Bits and Bytes: The Impact of Modern Technology on Ethical Social Work” process or procedure when in fact they solidify and give us confidence in a process that can survive an appeal or modify co-authored with Elaine Spencer in Social Work Ethics: Progressive, Practical and Relational Approaches, edited by Elaine itself as a result of a successful appeal. Spencer, Duane Massing and Jim Gough, Oxford University Press, 2017 58 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 59 Marshmallow Treats Sue Matheson

SQUATTING

The Meek shall inherit the earth someday. Chances are, though, they’ll be too timid to take it.

So here we’ll all be, Squatters, and the landlords will be too shy to pick up the rent.

—Allen Berry

60 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 61 incomplete assimilation and the struggle to “pass” as white. It is not entirely incompatible with a medicalized conception of depression as an illness, but it does seek to establish a Posing a Problem: Prozac Nation and the ghostly framework through which to understand why Prozac Nation, and indeed Wurtzel herself, exists in a cultural space of strangeness. failures of Jewish American Assimilation Prozac Nation’s strangeness emerges at the simple mention of the book title--it is as by Amy Tziporah Karp, CUNY, New York, New York loved as it is hated, reviled as it is worshipped--on the New York Times Bestseller list for weeks on end, selling millions of copies, all while being torn to shreds by literary critics. David Klinghoffer, in a book review of Prozac Nation appearing in the January 1994 issue of the National Review, sums up the overall critical reception of the memoir; “Of Preface course there is something inherently egotistical about a 27-year-old writing her memoirs,” In an October 3rd, 2007 Village Voice review of Michael Chabon’s Gentleman of the writes Klinghoffer. “However, until she began taking the antidepressant Prozac, Miss Road, Alexander Nazarayn writes, “What strange days these are to be a Jew… Less occupied with assimilation, these new Jewish novelists search through diaspora, immigration, and Wurtzel’s life really was about as harrowing as it could be--given that she is a middle-class genocide for those precious strands of continuity that would make Jewish history their New Yorker who went to private schools, then Harvard” (74).2 own” (“Gentleman of the Road”). Nazaryn’s assertion reflects an assumption that this new wave of writers inherited an assimilated position in the United States. Such a premise illustrates a tendency to allow contemporary narratives that evoke a picture of completed As in most of the reviews written about Prozac Nation in popular national newspapers Jewish American assimilation to serve as the entire vision of post-World War II Jewish and magazines, Klinghoffer conjures a vision of Elizabeth Wurtzel as the quintessential American life.1 Jewish American Princess—disregarding the precarious economic circumstances Wurtzel describes experiencing during her adolescent and early adult life. The story of completed This essay undertakes a complex project: to use Prozac Nation and the experience of assimilation, so seductive in its relentless promotion of the achievability of the American young, Jewish, female otherness to explore problematics/prohibitions in the Jewish dream, proves alluring not only to the critics of Prozac Nation, but also to Wurtzel, I will American assimilation narrative. To achieve this goal, I offer an alternative reading of show, as she tries to tell the story of her struggle with depression. Elizabeth Wurtzel’s experience of depression as described in Prozac Nation. My reading Rather than simply dismissing Wurtzel’s text as histrionic writing by a ‘spoiled brat,’ imagines Wurtzel’s depression as a response to the ongoing burden of strangerhood, of 2. See Also: Tucker, Ken. “Rambunctious With Tears.” New York Times Book Review. 25 Sept. 1994:11. Print. Harris, 1. For instance, Jonathan Safran Foer, Michael Chabon, and Gary Shteyngart. Mark. “Prozac Nation.” Entertainment Weekly 23 Sept. 1994. Print. 62 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 63 I argue that Wurtzel’s depression can be read as giving form to the anxieties and struggle of a fuller understanding of contemporary experiences of Jewish American assimilation. being Jewish and “off-white” (astranger) or still not quite completely assimilated. To fully Ghosting Prozac Nation: Anzia Yezierska, Mary Antin, and the Problems understand Jewish American assimilation, in all its manifestations, it is necessary to look of Jewish American Assimilation beyond the narratives of those who themselves immigrated. We must also consider that To understand Wurtzel’s story in context, it is first necessary to re-visit, briefly, the the succeeding generations may also experience the splitting and double-consciousness beginning of the twentieth century. Through a look at Yezierska’s memoir, Red Ribbon on endemic to being neither here nor there, or what Adrienne Rich calls being “split at the a White Horse (1950) and Mary Antin’s The Promised Land(1912) I will place Wurtzel roots” in her influential essay of the same name. firmly in a tradition of Jewish American women’s writing about ethnicity and assimilation, To re-read Wurtzel’s story, it is necessary to think about unearthing matter that despite Wurtzel’s disavowal that the issues she struggles with are rooted in Jewishness and Ghostly Matters: Haunting is not immediately available or apparent. Avery Gordon, in the difficulties of incomplete assimilation. and the Sociological Imagination offers useful tools with which to excavate. She proposes Anzia Yezierska’s 1950 fictionalized memoir, Red Ribbon on a White Horse, exemplifies that to fully understand the complexity of life and the difficulty of compressing it into the ambivalences and difficulties of assimilation. She describes being exoticized by her intelligible and linear narratives, theoreticians must also listen to the spaces, the pauses, non-Jewish counterparts, and how through this exoticization she becomes acceptable. the information that comes to us in ‘ghostly’ ways, because this can offer special insight Yezierska’s experiences foreshadow many of Wurtzel’s experiences in Prozac Nation: as a into the workings of power (Gordon 3). Jew, she is exoticized as hyper-emotional, serves as an outlet for others to vent repressed Thus, this essay gives life to the ghostly matters inherent (yet submerged) in Wurtzel’s feelings and through this outletting is admitted to an elite, wealthy white society. Both memoir and creates a companion reader of sorts. It seeks to show the true critical weight Yezierska and Wurtzel desire acceptance in this white world, and struggle with the 3 of a text typically passed off by critics as an empty shell penned by a whiny, spoiled girl. emotional and cultural sacrifices that are required for continued acceptance. Here I will show the palimpsest Prozac Nation offers and how we might better read it for In her memoir, Yezierska struggles with the ambivalences and difficulties of 3. Note that “spoiled” can be used interchangeably with the euphemism “Jewish American Princess,” or “JAP.” Like assimilation, moving away from Hollywood as soon as she understands that she will Hollywood movies produced in the mid-twentieth century by Jewish writers, Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation makes a nationalistic statement out of a group-oriented problem. Unintentionally, the aforementioned group and the latter create an imaginary national community out of profoundly Jewish interests, stories, ghosts, and historical aftermaths become an acceptable (token) Jew only while the Jews she left behind in the Lower East (one might even say Freud is such an example, though not, at least during his time, pop culture). Thus, not only does the country, if buying and inserting themselves into the story, begin to become “Jewished,” but the Jewish-American Side (NYC) are further denigrated and made invisible in their poverty. For instance, subject loses license to his/her (his)story. In essence, becoming whitened, we can see the deleterious effects of such a (subconscious) project in the despair expressed (though doubted by critics) by Elizabeth Wurtzel. 64 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 65 Yezierska details working as a stenographer for John Morrow (a fictionalized John been an evasion of life. I substituted reason for emotion, hiding behind a shell of safe Dewey) and developing a personal relationship with him. Through the scenes in which abstraction. I’ve been so repressed by the fear of feeling” (111). the two interact the reader is privy both to Yezierska’s anxieties about her racial status Yezierska is made super-human with a hyper-emotive body through which Morrow, who and personhood and to the ways Morrow exploits her otherness. Because he is a wealthy struggles mightily to repress and control his emotions, may expunge his unwanted feelings. white man he both validates her existence, thus causing her to fall in love with him, and As soon as he has rid himself of his unwanted passions, he rids himself of Yezierska (like exploits her simultaneously. Wurtzel, many years later will be used by her rich, white Harvard counterparts). He calls her an “unusual person,” rendering her strange, at the same time as he pats Like Wurtzel, Yezierska stands on the periphery of many worlds. She exists, in her hand, bridging the tactile gap Yezierska usually feels with “gentiles”. She writes: memory, in Eastern Europe, while she lives, in her present, in the United States. She

He patted my hand. It was a gesture of simple kindness, but it stirred enters an elite, white world, and is quickly pushed back to her poverty-stricken tenement currents in me that I had never been touched. The mountain of hurts I on the Lower East Side of New York. She is denigrated by white women and Jewish carried on my back from czarist Russia….dissolved. I had been accepted, women, white men and Jewish men, and the brief encounters she has with people of recognized as a person…I tasted the bread and wine of equality” (107). color suggest both a solidarity and a complete alienation (denoting the ways in which Jewish-Americans were just one of the many groups imported and incorporated into When Morrow asks Yezierska to the Lower East Side for dinner, he remarks that her whiteness in order to combat the “threat of blackness” in the middle twentieth century). neighborhood “is like a foreign country!” (108). After the two attend the Yiddish theater, She thinks of this connection, writing “I wondered whether it was harder to be born a Morrow says that ‘the emotion of the actors was so vivid and the audience so responsive Jew in a Christian world than a Negro—a black skin in a white world” (158). that this interested him more than the play” (109). He goes on to tell her, “You know, Yezierska skips the birth of her daughter and her middle-aged years where she they have something you have too…The same intensity. I think it comes from fighting exited poverty and returns to her narration in her later years where we find her better off for every inch of ground on which you stand” (109). but still riddled with the anxieties of being in-between. In an attempt to finally find some Morrow begins to write her love letters, despite being married. His letters exemplify peace to her anxiousness and alienation, she moves to Vermont and attempts to become that he is not in love with her, but in love with how he begins to feel emotion with and like the stoic, white, working class people in her town. She writes: through her, precisely because he sees her as hyper-emotive. He writes, “My life has

66 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 67 I remembered Will Rogers upbraiding me for always harping on the past. former self. Antin writes: “You’ve won success the hard way. Must you play the same tune forever?”...I All the processes of uprooting...took place in my own soul…I can never would learn from Marian Foster to be happy...Instead of the fear and anxiety forget, for I bear the scars. But I want to forget...It is painful to be consciously with which I once wrote, I would write with joy and thanksgiving...I actually of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not believed I could slough off my skin and with this new home begin a new afraid to live on...if only I do not have to remember too much...And I have life. The furniture that was presented to me, so steeped in the history of the thought of a charm that should release me from the folds of my clinging village, would help me take on the life of the villagers (202). past...I...will tell my tale, for once and never hark back any more. (xiv-xv) Yezierska envies her neighbors for their concrete concerns about crops, while she “was Here, Antin suggests a traumatized state in which her past life and her present life are plagued by doubts and uncertainties, the conflict between what I was and what I wanted at odds, existing as irreconcilable fragments. She hopes that through the telling of her to be, the consuming fear that I was nothing, nobody—and the inordinate craving for story she will be able to shut the book on it and sever the hold her past self has on her approval” (206). present self. This is in line with psychoanalytic thought developing during the same time, Mary Antin, Anzia Yezierska’s contemporary, immigrated to the United States from in which re-telling, or re-enacting, the past might lead to resolution of issues troubling Polotsk with her family when she was a child. While Yezierska writes about the illusion of the psyche. Whether or not it is possible for the re-telling of Antin’s story to effectively the American Dream, Antin embraces the United States as the place where she was able silence her past, the desire for it to do so is telling about the consequences of otherness to bloom. However, the prologue to Antin’s memoir, The Promised Land, complicates and strangeness she experienced. reading the text simply as an illustration of the achievement of the American Dream. Antin’s work, both the upholding of the American Dream and the complicating of While the rest of the memoir upholds the rags to riches ideas of American assimilation it in the prologue, is important, she suggests, because she is just one of many who have success stories, Antin’s prologue gives light to the underbelly of this assimilation. experienced this type of fragmentation, loss of self, and disorientation. She writes: In the prologue to The Promised Land Antin illustrates the ways in which she became a fragmented person when she left Polotsk and came to the United States. She suggests I am not yet thirty...and I am writing my life history... Although I have a fragmentation so violent that she wishes for the telling of her tale to be the end of her written a genuine personal memoir, I believe that its chief interest lies in the fact that it is illustrative of scores of unwritten lives... We are the 68 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 69 strands of the cable that binds the Old World to the New. As the ships that (or an unmarked white girl). Yet, between these pleas she writes of her family’s precarious brought us link the shores of Europe and America, so our lives span the financial state, disrupting her desire to be read as metonymic of the “average” depressed, bitter sea of racial differences and misunderstandings. (xiii) privileged, twenty-something white female. Why, then, is Wurtzel dismissed as a whiny, overly privileged brat by critics? Wurtzel is trivialized because though she often inhabits Like Yezierska, Antin tells the story of many immigrants, attempting to get at the strange an off-white (stranger) identity (when she is unable to remediate herself) she, and others, experience of dislocation, otherness, and all of the anxieties associated with inhabiting are instructed to read her as always, and originally, authentically white because of the these strange places. Accompanying their own anxieties is the anxiety to tell the story of relentless and pervasive nature of the narrative of successful and completed Jewish abjection experienced not just by themselves, but many. American assimilation. Her own desire to establish herself as the depressed every-woman masks the tenuous hold she has on an assimilated status and the daily struggle she has What is Recognizable Here? to maintain her status in privileged spaces. Wurtzel not only exhibits the anxiety of Judith Butler, in Giving an Account of Oneself, suggests that asking a subject to assimilating her depressed self into sanity, she also exhibits the anxiety of assimilating mediate her life experiences through language is inherently violent. As one struggles herself into proper white femininity from her off-white Jewish position, projects that this to tell oneself, there are inevitably holes, gaps, and places one is reaching towards but essay illustrates as deeply intertwined. cannot yet find; “Moreover, the very terms by which we give an account, by which we Wurtzel, in order to maintain her assimilated identity must attempt to unmark make ourselves intelligible to ourselves and to others, are not of our making” (Butler 21). herself of the traces of working class, “ghetto girl” (a popular term for working Jewish Elizabeth Wurtzel is “constrained in advance by a regime of truth that decides what will women in the 1920s and 30s) Jewish femininity in order to ‘put on’ whiteness. This and will not be a recognizable form of being” (22). Therefore, we encounter two distinct includes becoming quieter, smaller, smiling more, and relying on masculine attention/ problems—Wurtzel’s inability to tell herself outside of the frame of the Jewish American desire for self-worth and happiness. Wurtzel is never able to fully contain herself, however, assimilation story through most of her text and the inability of receivers of the text to and relies on psychotropic medication and therapy to propel her to the outskirts of read her story outside of the framework of completed Jewish American assimilation (or, whiteness. However, this strangeness is attributed to her managed, but not ameliorated, rather, an inability to see Jewish-Americans as anything other than privileged, middle- depressive state and not a confusing, liminal ethnic position. Wurtzel, hovering between upper class whites). a white and off-white (stranger) female status is neither here nor there. Wurtzel repeatedly asks readers to accept her as a clichéd, middle-class, every-girl 70 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 71 Commenting on the phenomenon of the performativity of white femininity, Karen is driven to debilitating anxiety and depression. In order to be proclaimed rehabilitated Brodkin writes: from her depression, as well as reabsorbed into whiteness, she must rid herself of the behaviors that make her unrecognizable lest she risk complete disenfranchisement. When immigrants learn that the way to be American is to claim white patriarchal constructions of womanhood and manhood and a middle- Wurtzel, therefore, becomes properly white through her comportment and class or bourgeois outlook for themselves, they are adapting patterns and expression, rather than through the vocational and legalistic rights that whitened Jewish practices that were here long before they were. These are the patterns and men. This suggests that Jewish feminine assimilation into whiteness is much more practices by which the United States has continually redefined itself as a highly dependent on the body and its movements than its masculine counterpart. While nation of whites (however variably white has been defined) (178). assimilation for straight Jewish American men has been explored as something facilitated by public inclusions such as the GI Bill following World War II, Jewish American Wurtzel’s ambivalent ethno-racial status is dependent on location. Brodkin, writing about women’s assimilation needs to be explored as a highly personal ability to perform white her own childhood, addresses this in-between status that depends upon its context for femininity, lest we imagine Jewish women were all carried into white, middle-class status solidification. She writes, “In relation to “the blond people,” mainstream white folks, by their male counterparts. Wurtzel is mentally ill (off-white, strange) when she cannot the women of my family felt different. However, in relation to African Americans, we perform proper white femininity and well (white) when she is able to discipline her body experienced ourselves as mainstream and white” (17). This shape-shifting, this neither- and behaviors. Mental illness, particularly the diagnosis of depression, is therefore, not here-nor-there status exacts its toll in its constant demand for performativity. Jewish simply about easing this particular patient’s suffering, which is undoubtedly real and women who do not whiten themselves properly are abjected as backwards, lazy, hyper- harrowing, but also a method of re-establishing Wurtzel where she has been relegated consumptive, frigid and/or hypersexual, fat, loud, and, conversely, sans white performance, post-Jewish-American assimilation in the racialized, gendered, and classed hierarchies 4 The motions available for Wurtzel as impostors attempting to claim non-white status. already present in the United States. are limited to the performance of white, middle to upper-class femininity and deviations Elizabeth Wurtzel, though certainly encompassed within and aware of a philosophy from this performance make her unreadable, a position so profoundly uneasy that she of the Holocaust that insists all Jewish Americans born since are bearers of survival and 4. An oft-used example of “backwards” women (within larger U.S. communities and narratives and sometimes also within Jewish communities themselves) are religious Jewish women who fully cover. Franny Fine from the show The memory, is not a descendant of survivors and barely touches on the traumatic matter Nanny exemplifies the JAP stereotype which includes laziness, over-consumption, preoccupation with appearance, and a ravenous appetite. Sandra Bernhard, particularly in her performance Without You I’m Nothing exemplifies the that pushed her father’s family to emigrate from Russia to the United States, nor does impostor attempting to claim non-white status. 72 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 73 she ever mention her mother’s family’s assimilation story, though it is alluded they are studies of the constructivist nature of ethnicity/race in the United States. Critics like from Germany. Not only does she not offer readers a contextualization for her anxiety Jon Stratton, Michael Rogin, David Roediger, and Karen Brodkin show how Jews in and depression (for to do so would disrupt her authorial intent to posit herself as an America, particularly Eastern European Jews arriving after 1880 during the third wave unexceptional, white twenty-something with no reason to be depressed other than a of Jewish immigration to the United States, went from being classified as non-white chemical imbalance), I suggest she also does not possess lenses with which to understand ethnic others to being white after World War II. While the sources of this whitening are the impact of inherited history/epigenetics on her present because such a lens has been contested amongst scholars concerned with this assimilation, there is almost no challenge eradicated in order for contemporary Jewish Americans to be seen, and to understand to the notion that all Jews achieved assimilated white status after World War II. The story themselves, as seamlessly white. For, if Jews are white in America, having been racialized Elizabeth Wurtzel conveys in Prozac Nation, rife with hiding, grappling, and striving to others in every corner of the world previously, then we may believe in the American become someone else (enunciated as a struggle to transcend depression) suggests that the dream and we may finally believe we have found a ‘true’ and accepting home (in many assumptions about completed Jewish American assimilation need to be questioned and ways eerily similar to how assimilated and secular German Jews felt right before the our conception of Jewish American assimilation is in need of reform. Holocaust began). Wurtzel begins her construction of whiteness when she attempts to portray her

Prozac Nation: Jewish and Struggling to Pass in America parents as American (i.e., white) and her junior high and high school Yeshiva peers’ parents as old-fashioned and outdated (i.e., off-white). She focuses on her mother’s life Wurtzel, in the prologue to Prozac Nation, writes, “I start to feel like I can’t maintain history because it helps to solidify Wurtzel’s white racial position more than her father’s the facade any longer, that I may just start to show through” (2). The statement instructs life history that is rife with immigration and poverty. She writes, “She’d gone to Cornell... readers to understand Wurtzel as a person who “passes” through the world as “normal” her mother told her that all she could be was an architect’s secretary, so she majored in while underneath she is “abnormal” or possibly crazy. However, the façade may also art history...She’d spent a junior year abroad at the Sorbonne and did all the studiedly be read as a white mask that hides her ethnic Jewish markings that are threatening to adventurous things a nice Jewish girl from Long Island can do” (22). Her mother holds emerge. The very possibility that Elizabeth Wurtzel may be working, and often failing, the expectations of an upper-class white woman coming of age in the late forties and early to keep her “whiteface” intact struggles against the very foundational notion of Jewish fifties. She is educated, but as a woman she is also simultaneously limited in what work she American Assimilation. may expect to obtain; only through marriage may she expect to be uplifted economically. Jewish American assimilation is used as a foundational example in white ethnic 74 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 75 Here Wurtzel begins identifying herself with other white upper-class American women disorder. However, Wurtzel does not ruminate on any of this history, nor do any of her of her generation, who expect to surpass their mothers’ economic status in part because therapists analyze this matter as important in understanding her depression diagnosis. of their mothers’ work in the second wave of the women’s movement.5 Rather, this information begins to amass as ghostly matter.

In order to construct this version of unmarked6, white identity, Wurtzel chooses to Describing her father, she writes, “He came from a background that was more give very little attention to her father’s working-class, immigrant Jewish family. While her blue-collar immigrant than anything else. And instead of college, he’d done time in the maternal grandparents appear in her memoir, her paternal grandparents and family rarely U.S. Army. He was not cool or groovy at all, just a fuckup” (24). While her mother “was emerge, even as subjects who are an absent presence in her life. However, what she does frantic to keep at least a toehold in the bourgeoisie…my dad was working overtime (or offer about her paternal family exemplifies one of the many moments in Prozac Nation actually, not gainfully working much at all) to stay the hell out of it” (24). In this version, where Wurtzel begins to open the possibility that some of her misery is related to her and throughout the text, Wurtzel will associate herself with her mother and dissociate (and her families) Jewish matters and the process of ongoing assimilation. Despite this herself from her father, as if she has inherited nothing from him. Disassociating from her dearth of information she does assert that this side of her family was rife with depression father, and her father’s family, allows her to extricate herself from any need to think about and sadness (28). the weight of Jewish history in relationship to her depression diagnosis. An alternative reading of this information evidences a man raised without any ability to escape his While Wurtzel will drop this information in the text and never revisit it, this very working-class status besides joining the army. The experience of the army leaves him information suggests her own misery may be related to her father’s families’ misery which alienated and disenfranchised, and he cannot pull himself up by his bootstraps into the is likely, at least partly, a product of immigration, assimilation and all of the attendant upper-class white world as his wife, his community, and the nation expect him to do. failures associated with these processes. We can make this analytical leap from studying earlier Jewish American women’s writing, such as Yezierska’s and Mary Antin’s, to see the A few pages later, Wurtzel writes of the school she attends and the reality of family ways in which being in-between and unincorporated contributes to anxiety and (what life for most of her classmates, again attempting to position herself as “normal” and we would now call) depression as well as what is now referred to as post-traumatic stress therefore white in relationship to their strangeness. Wurtzel abjects religious Jews (physically 5. The “Second Wave” of the women’s movement included considerable involvement by Jewish women. Theorists see marked by the necessities of dress dictated by religious tenants) to normalize (whiten) her this movement as one of the sites of Jewish women’s metamorphosis into whiteness. 6. While whiteness is often spoken about in popular culture as an unmarked and empty hegemonic identity, Ruth Frankenberg notes that “the more one scrutinizes it, the more the notion of whiteness as unmarked norm is revealed to own identity. “Since I went to a Jewish school where the divorce rate among parents was be a mirage, or indeed, to put it even more strongly, a white delusion” (73). Benedict Anderson’s notion of imaginary community usefully explains why Wurtzel (along with her family, doctor’s, and friends) is convinced maintaining a fairly low (that was the main reason my mom sent me there), I would visit friends’ homes façade of ‘whiteness’ will make her ordinary, unnoticed (or in essence unmarked). 76 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 77 and find myself amazed at how glum things seemed compared to life at our apartment” with earlocks and girls who wore long sleeves and thick tights in June” (35). (34). Here, Wurtzel is the exception to the rule, in some ways more “American” (and thus Wurtzel establishes herself as separate from the environment in which she competes, a “normal” and “white”) than her Jewish schoolmates. She describes her classmates’ fathers temporary inhabitant of this strange world. She learns the prayers, she insists, because as unapproachable and distant, while the mothers “quite simply lacked style, were dowdy she is bored and precocious and absorbs any information like a sponge. These are not and school-marmish, and they often smelled bad to me as well. …The sheer joy of having “her” people with “their” strange fathers and schoolmarmish mothers. Rather, they serve kids seemed completely lost on them. They did not get down with parenthood” (34). The as colorful examples of the strange, mystical, “exotic” world of Jewish practice. Wurtzel description of Wurtzels’s classmates parents seems an extension of the description of her imagines herself to be part of the assimilated, white world, and not the strange world her paternal grandparents, setting up a moment where Wurtzel can disavow their influence classmates inhabit in which men wear yarmulkes and girls wear dresses below the knee and her classmates influence on her identity formation all in one clean break. and past the elbow. Her mother, she writes, “hung out with me whenever she was home, helping Later on, Wurtzel will use stories of these “funny,” “quirky” spaces and people to me fill in the patterns on the Lite-Brite or dunking Oreo cookies in milk with me or entertain her friends at Harvard as well as to differentiate herself from the Jewish world dancing around the living room with me while we played Free to Be You and Me” (34). she both represents and portrays. She conjures the “religious Jews...intellectual types Wurtzel’s mother is hip and fun, a Bohemian New Yorker, while her friends’ parents are that you’d see in Woody Allen movies...” of her Upper West Side upbringing in order to purveyors of a more austere Jewish parenting that she sees as unloving, cold, and even establish the ways in which she, while perhaps neurotic and depressed, is not one of the smelly (conjuring stereotypes of Jews popular during the third wave of Jewish American American Jewish separatists from her tales (107). assimilation mentioned earlier in the section on Yezierska). Wurtzel, again displaying her anxieties about being strange as well as her intense Wurtzel continues to attempt to construct a normalized, white identity by abjecting desire to read herself as the American every-girl (or unmarked white girl), recalls her more visibly religious Jews. She writes: adolescent identification with Bruce Springsteen and the hours she would spend listening While we didn’t keep a kosher home, I somehow managed to win the school to his music in the dark. She writes, “But I identify with him so completely that I start to Brochos Bee, the Jewish equivalent of a spelling bee, five years in a row...I retired wish I could be a boy in New Jersey...I’m figuring if I can just become poor white trash, if from this rather odd competition after winning the national contest, against boys I can just get in touch with the blue-collar blues, then there’ll be a reason why I feel this

78 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 79 way” (44). Here the strange hovering space in which Wurtzel exists is illuminated. By using the word JAP, Wurtzel invokes language that is used as a tool of discipline both within and Here, Wurtzel creates a scenario similar to the use of blackface by Jewish actors as without Jewish communities. Evelyn Torton Beck, in her essay “From “Kike” to “JAP”: a tool of whitening in early Hollywood described by theorist Michael Rogin in Blackface, How Misogyny, Anti-Semitism, and Racism Construct the “Jewish American Princess,” White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot. Rogin, writing about the writes that “in the popular imagination, Jews, “Japs,” women and homosexuals have all function of minstrelsy in constructing and incorporating immigrants into white America, been viewed as devious, unreliable, and power hungry” (88). Further, Beck writes: states, “It was Americanizing ethnics, first the Irish and then the Jews, who dominated minstrelsy at the antebellum flourishing and early-twentieth century revitalization of the The Jewish Princess is seen as manipulative, particularly of the men in her form. Blacked-up ethnics entered, even as they helped to create, the American melting life...In addition, she’s lazy -- she doesn’t work inside or outside the home. pot” (53). By constructing herself in opposition to the “white trash” she claims she longs She is the female version of the Jew who, according to anti-Semitic lore, to be, Wurtzel effectively solidifies herself as a white insider in opposition to the white is a parasite on society…There are physical stereotypes as well: the Jew strangers Springsteen refers to in his songs (strangers largely because of class). However, with the big hook nose, thick lips, and frizzy hair. The Jewish American the reader also knows her mother is employed only part-time and her father rarely pays Princess has had a nose job and her hair has been straightened, but she too alimony and that she is in private school on a scholarship—this information undercuts has large lips (an image we immediately also recognize as racist)... (90) her desire to align herself with middle-class white America and is mentioned only a few times in the text (Wurtzel 23). Perhaps without intention, Wurtzel here allows readers to understand how deeply the stereotypes of Jewish American women instruct how she evaluates herself and other When Wurtzel finally manages to spend a summer at her aunt’s home in the New girls around her. While she uses the term JAP to exemplify class difference, she also Jersey of her Springsteen dreams she finds herself as miscast there as anywhere else. She inadvertently invokes Jewish difference and how this is understood in her contemporary spends the summer hanging out with her cousin; going to parties, smoking pot, listening moment. to music, swimming, and sleeping. The cousin and her friends are set to start community colleges in the fall and Wurtzel writes, “It was hard for me not to seem like a superior Wurtzel imagines she has found entrance into whiteness, or insider status, when she snothead in that environment...Where on earth would I ever fit in? I kept wondering. At begins to date the most popular boy in her high school. Wurtzel begins dating Zachary, camp everyone is so Jappy, and here in Matawan they’re not Jappy enough” (78-79). “this really great, sociable, charming, fun-loving guy,” and feels that her long-standing

80 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 81 yearning to transcend herself is finally granted (86). “It seemed that for years I had writes “all the salient issues that perplex American Jews and that figure in their literature quietly and surreptitiously prayed to God that He might make me–or whatever it was after 1980 are bent, wrinkled in some way by either forgetting or remembering what about me that made me–disappear, metamorphose into somebody else”(Wurtzel 86). happened in the thirties and forties to the Jews of Europe. (3) Burstein goes on, stating, Dating Zachary allows Wurtzel to gain temporary entrance into clearly intelligible white “psychoanalysts and historiographers insist that the past haunts and hobbles us until femininity because she attaches herself to the school’s symbol of clearly intelligible normal its losses are mourned” (8). This haunting can emerge in post 1980s Jewish American masculinity. Sensing this precarious grip on being rescued from her stranger identity, literature as a “sense of the individual as fragmented, strange, unrecognizable to itself in its Wurtzel clings to Zachary with a stranglehold, emphasizing the anxieties she has about ceaseless changes” (9). In Prozac Nation this haunting, or ghostly matter, is inscribed slipping back into her stranger state. The demise of the relationship with Zachary pushes through the ways in which Wurtzel’s depression is exacerbated by her anxious upbringing Wurtzel into a deep despair. She writes, “I used to weep for never having anything worth as well as how she must mediate herself in the world to not appear “too Jewish”. Her losing, but now I was simply resplendent—puffy, red, hysterical—with a loss I could relentless sadness, her sense that anything can disappear at any moment is cultivated not identify completely” (90). The deep sadness Wurtzel began to exhibit when she reached only in her own family, but also in the Holocaust education popular in Hebrew Schools puberty is finally explicable in its scope. (and now in secular schooling as well where Jewish students become, inadvertently, the living example of past Jewish trauma) as a tool of remembrance and as a prevention of While Wurtzel will root this sadness in the chemical depression with which she future genocide. But the sense of loss, far removed from the soil of Eastern and Central is later diagnosed, aligning herself with ‘other privileged’ people who are inexplicably Europe, is amorphous, inexplicable, and somehow inappropriate--much more easily sad, I contend that her sadness is in large part related to being raised Jewish in a post- diagnosed as a chemical imbalance then as remnants of Jewish history and the reality of Holocaust world in which the Holocaust is a trope for all Jewish histories of public post-Holocaust Jewish life (her parents are both born during the Holocaust). traumas. Though she rarely mentions the Holocaust in Prozac Nation, she spends a good deal of time relating the ways in which previous trauma dictates how she is parented and In “Third Generation Descendants of Holocaust Survivors and the Future of how an inexplicable sense of loss and fear of sudden disappearance is deeply attached to Remembering,” Eva Fogelman explores the ways in which third generation Holocaust this upbringing. The fact that this insinuation is ‘written between the lines’ of Wurtzel’s survivors are recognized in Israel but not in the United States (where they are imagined text makes it no less salient, in fact perhaps more salient. to have not inherited any trauma). While she finds that 3Gs thrive in light of their legacy, respondents bitterly refuted her, suggesting that the far-reaching effects of the Janet Burstein, in Telling the Little Secrets: American Jewish Writing since the 1980s,

82 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 83 Holocaust continue to shape the psyches of the Jews who have been born “after”. An white Wurtzel becomes. She becomes rootless, untied from her parents and the semi- anonymous respondent on June 28th, 2008 refutes Fogelman, citing her own position as assimilated Jewish identity they represent, yet still outside of the white, moneyed circles she a descendant of survivors of Pogroms and extreme anti-Semitism as the main contributor moves in, both at Harvard and later in Dallas, working for the Dallas Sun. “I’m a stranger to her history of depression and anxiety (Fogelman). Further, she claims that in Hebrew wherever I go because I’m strange to myself” Wurtzel writes (142). In assimilating more School the time spent learning about the Holocaust heightened her anxiety and feelings fully than any other generation of American Jews, Wurtzel and others of her generation of being a stranger (Fogelman). She goes on further, stating, “Now, in my mid-thirties, are expected to bear no markings of passing anxieties. Yet, her identification as a stranger I struggle with my own emotional challenges and...I feel strongly that if it were not shows that she sees herself as belonging nowhere—not with her Jewish counterparts, for the...historical strands of trauma and persecution on both sides of my family, the people of color, or inheritors of white privilege. pervasive legacy of abuse, trauma, and mental illness might not have existed” (Fogelman). Wurtzel’s stranger Jewish identity becomes apparent in her anxieties even as she Wurtzel’s relentless desire to be read as seamlessly normal inhibits her from struggles to maintain an image of white, middle-class femininity. “Don’t you get it?” she exploring the historical residues contributing to her depression and anxiety, but the says to her psychiatrist, Dr. Sterling, “Nothing sticks. That’s my whole problem. And familial relationships she describes (as well as her schooling) illuminates these ghostly that’s how it is for me with everything. Nothing is real to me unless it’s right in front markings. Wurtzel, acting as the receptacle for these unwanted worries for her family, of me.” Dr. Sterling responds, “What a terrible way to live” (Wurtzel 203). Anxieties momentarily finds an outlet for her own anxieties by attaching herself to the symbol about disappearances or sudden absences are embedded in much of post-Holocaust of stability, assimilation, and white masculinity she finds in Zachary. With appropriate Jewish writings, music, and art, suggesting these anxieties are not merely signals of a outlets for her anxieties, Wurtzel can momentarily stabilize herself into a middle-class, universalized depression, as the anxieties exhibited by Wurtzel’s presumed white body white, adolescent female narrative in which heterosexual heartbreak is an acceptable and are read. However, Wurtzel’s anxieties over disappearances are not read as a deep-rooted encouraged circumstance for feeling sad and not wanting to get out of bed. This narrative ethno-cultural anxiety. Rather, these anxieties are read simply and exclusively as the absolves her of her inability to explain her sadness, and even allows her mother to stop symptoms of a “chemical” depression induced by her parents’ divorce. Dr. Sterling’s worrying, for a moment, about her daughter’s strangeness because she is finally exhibiting belief that underneath Wurtzel’s morose exterior lies a giggly girl who just wants to have normal worries for an assimilated girl with no inherited worries. fun points to the belief that Jews born after 1950 have prefiguratively acquired white culture. The less frequently Wurtzel’s parents appear in her narrative, the more normally

84 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 85 While Wurtzel’s therapists try to unearth the smiling, happy girl they believe lies For instance, the largest wave of Jewish immigration to the United States included large beneath her morose exterior, her friends seem less convinced that she is actually one numbers of impoverished and uneducated Jews. Jewish organizations already present of them, e.g., a properly white, middle-class person. Rather Wurtzel’s friends view her in the United States began benevolent programs in part to discipline these immigrants as different and exotic, a colorful additive to their Andover-educated, whitewashed into white, middle-class Americans because they understood that the racialization of world. She writes of her friend Archer who was “one of those Yankee gentlemen who these new immigrants would also affect their own race identity within the United States collects hysterical Jewesses as good buddies because we are as foreign and exotic to him (Baum, 163). It is necessary for members of Wurtzel’s Jewish family to police one another’s as the natives in Tahiti were to Gaugin–and no matter how well he got to know any behaviors into normalized performance in order to continue to pass for white and middle of us, his bafflement never abated” (218). While she enjoys the attention she receives class. as an exotic Jewess in the hallowed halls of Harvard, the realities of exoticization and Her friends, intelligibly middle and upper-class white women “don’t understand the strangeness it entails push Wurtzel deeper and deeper into the funhouse mirror of how desperate I am to have someone say, I love you and I support you just the way you anxiety and depression, in which all is distorted through a lens that suggests her excessive are because you’re wonderful just the way you are. They don’t understand that I can’t emotions need immediate remediation. This idea of being excessively emotional points remember anyone ever saying that to me” (225). Wurtzel’s therapists, parents, classmates, back to Evelyn Torton Beck’s assertions of stereotypes of Jewish women, a stereotype that romantic interests, and employers are all invested in Wurtzel inhabiting a normal (white) contributes to the diagnosis Wurtzel receives despite the ways in which her Jewishness is identity; thus, the notion of “you’re wonderful the way you are” is not available to her as erased by her therapists. such proclamations would encourage her to relax and cease putting forth the effort to Archer is baffled by her hyper-enmeshed family, just as she is baffled by his affluent pass. Her “properly” white female friends cannot understand this significance because Protestant family’s distance in which each person is imagined to be on his/her own after their relationship with abjection, and subsequently acceptance, is nonexistent, showing the age of eighteen. Wurtzel writes, “The concept of Who asked you? does not exist in my some of the differences between inhabiting an unmarked, normalized position and family, because the concept of individuals doesn’t exist. We’re all meshed together, all a inhabiting an assimilating (and threateningly strange) position. These simple words seem reflection of one another, as if we were a pot of stew in which all the ingredients affect the trite to them and make them think Wurtzel is indeed a bit off. In fact, Wurtzel’s success flavor” (224). A stew metaphor is an apt one in reference to assimilation projects because (working for Rolling Stone and several national newspapers before graduating college), family members are often used as gauges for one another’s authenticity/inauthenticity. coupled with her feelings of inadequacy and failure, seem incredibly disturbing to those

86 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 87 around her, almost as if Wurtzel enjoyed indulging in her miseries, partly for the pleasure that assimilation is not an actual absorption into whiteness but a shoddy facsimile in of playing the hysterical Jewess. need of constant reiteration to appear authentic.7 However, since there is no “original” whiteness, Wurtzel’s off-whiteness must be in place in order to brighten the whiteness of The ways in which Wurtzel’s deepening depression gets acted out place her solidly her imagined horizontal peers. into the standard narrative of the body-mutilating white, middle-class girl endemic to talk shows, after-school specials, and nineteen-nineties memoirs. However, Wurtzel’s Finally, on page 225, in one of the last chapters of the book, Wurtzel suggests, “part particular narrative strays from the motif of the girl who hurts herself for no reason of the problem (the depression problem) relates to ethnicity” (225). However, she does when she writes, “but I could never completely drop out, I could never lose my mind not point to post-Holocaust anxieties or assimilation problems, but to the differences to the point where they’d have to send me away to a loony bin...because my mother between Catholic guilt and Jewish guilt–“Catholic guilt is about impossibility, while would not be able to survive such a personal debacle. She barely wanted to know about Jewish guilt is about an abundance of possibility” (225). Wurtzel does not ask whether the extent of the despair I was able to experience” (47). Here, Wurtzel’s mother is not the super drive toward ambition and possibility may be embedded in attempts to excel the doting white mother of Betty Crocker commercials who will do anything to make and assimilate in an effort to avoid threats of annihilation or expulsion that have plagued her little girl better. Rather, she explicitly instructs Wurtzel to contain and manage her Jews throughout thousands of years of human history. anxieties, to “tell this stuff to Dr. Isaac, she’d say every time I tried to talk to her about Toward the end of the Prozac Nation, Wurtzel describes the ways in which she tried my depression” (47). Wurtzel’s mother cannot deal with her depression or accept her to compensate for being depressed; “I had developed a persona that could be extremely mental state, because Wurtzel’s opportunities for assimilation into white middle-class melodramatic and entertaining. It had, at times, all the selling points of madness, all communities far surpassed the opportunities she had herself. the aspects of performance art. I was able to reduce whatever craziness I’d experienced As Wurtzel descends further into depression, she writes of becoming “one of those into the perfect anecdote” (290). Here Wurtzel exists as the exotic entertainer for her people” who engage in behaviors viewed as deviant, like “one of those people who walks old-moneyed white friends, the hysterical Jewess with endless stories of intrigue and alone at night while others sleep or watch Mary Tyler Moore re-runs or pull all-nighters sex. However, she posits herself as attempting to cover up her depression, to pass as sane, to finish up some paper that’s due first thing tomorrow” (181). She sleeps during the rather than as attempting to assimilate, or at least gain entrance into privileged white day, skips classes, and spends much of her time crying. The control Wurtzel exercises spaces by performing the “exotic little American princess” she had set out to be at the 7. Though whiteness is a construct and no person fully embodies this imagined identity, we must acknowledge the during the beginning of her life starts to waver in her early twenties as she sees the ways material reality that those who are ‘more naturally’ able to perform the behaviors and body movements associated with white middle-class identity are more likely to garner the benefits of white hegemony. 88 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 89 beginning of her freshmen year at Harvard (95). that even the most elite of America’s youth are depressed, and while this may surely be a worthy criticism, it is a mask meant to distract us from her assimilating status. Between Wurtzel’s memoir ends with an epilogue bearing the same name as the title, Prozac the cracks, in small utterances, readers can begin to see the fragile hold she has on being Nation. As in the prologue, Wurtzel establishes the current United States as a deeply ‘normal’ and the lurking sense of strangeness haunting her at every turn. troubled, alienated place in which Prozac might be used as a pacifier for symptoms of the empty way that, she contends, we live. The epilogue collapses the United States into a horizontal community of depressed individuals all suffering the same feelings of disenfranchisement and emptiness and Wurtzel relentlessly insists that her story is unoriginal and clichéd in its prevalence. She asserts that what is fascinating about this wave of depression is that the depressed individuals are those who hold the greatest promise for success and achievement, reaffirming Wurtzel’s imagined adoring public’s vision of her as an overly privileged white girl. She does not talk about the ways in which her depression may be related to the constant process of assimilating in which she must always be proving her proper whiteness even as she continuously fails.

Like Wurtzel’s literary predecessors, and contemporaries, she exhibits anxiety and depression about being a stranger wherever she goes, in whatever context she finds herself situated. While earlier writers like Yezierska more readily understood themselves as being off-whitestrangers , and her contemporaries understand themselves to be strangers in need of bodily and behavioral modification to shrug off their strange state, Wurtzel continues to assert that she is strange “simply” because of a chemical imbalance due to her parents divorce (and perhaps hereditary genetic factors). Her reliance on this narrative belies her desperate desire to be read as an upper-class white woman who has “made it” but continues to be besieged by depression and anxiety. Wurtzel wants readers to be alarmed

90 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 91 Works Cited chabon-s-heavy-handed-gentlemen-of-the-road/>.

Rich, Adrienne. “Split At the Root: An Essay On Jewish Identity.” Blood, Bread, and Antin, Mary. The Promised Land. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1912. Print. Poetry. New York: Norton, 1986. Print.

Brodkin, Karen. How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race In America. Roediger, David. Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past. Berkeley: University of New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1998. Print. California Press, 2002. Print.

Burstein, Janet. Telling the Little Secrets: American Jewish Writing Since the 1980s. Madison: ---. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. London: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. Print. Verso, 1991. Print.

Butler, Judith. Giving An Account of Oneself. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. Rogin, Michael. Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot. Print. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Print.

Foer, Jonathan Safran. Everything is Illuminated. New York: Harper Perennial: 2003. Print. Stratton, Jon. “Not Really White Again: Performing Jewish Difference in Hollywood Screen Fogelman, Eva. “Third Generation Descendants of Holocaust Survivors and the Films Since the 1980s .” . 42.2 (2001): 142-1666. Print.

Future of Remembering.” Jewcy. Web. 05 January 2008: n. page. Tucker, Ken. “Rambunctious With Tears.” New York Times Book Review. 25 Sept.

Gordon, Avery. Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. 1994:11. Print.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Print. Wurtzel, Elizabeth. Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America. Boston: Houghton

Harris, Mark. “Prozac Nation.” Entertainment Weekly 23 Sept. 1994. Print. Mifflin, 1994. Print.

Klinghoffer , David. “Prozac Nation: A Memoir.” National Review. 46.21 (1994): 74. Yezierska, Anzia. Red Ribbon On a White Horse. New York: Charles Scribner and Print. Sons, 1950. Print.

Nazaryan, Alexander. “Michael Chabon’s Heavy-Handed Gentlemen of the Road- Page 1-Books - New York - Village Voice.” The Village Voice. 23 Oct. 2007. Web. 13 Dec. 2010.

I have mirrored your accident We found our feet underground and fallen up the stairs, fallen off and watched as business knocked the map. I am mostly in hiding us over, told us that our poems from imagined enemies and critics would never sell. Then poetry was of my own devising. You know the new rock & roll, then it went how it is: these thoughts arise online. Everyone’s become a critic and worm their way in, quickly and an expert but no-one wants becoming facts. Everyone is a poet to read or think about their work. now and if they are not they borrow Everything is in the moment, texts and call them their own, everything is now, then gone. or sing and dance, seek fame There’s dust on all my books and a public any way they can. and people don’t believe I can One learns to tire of audiences have possibly read them all. and withdraw, preferring to mail Today I’m flat on my back, pamphlets to a group of friends, wondering how I might as though it were still the seventies. write about the sky. Back then shops were independent and sometimes sold small books on sale or return (usually the latter). —Rupert M. Loydell

94 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 95 Snoangel #2 Sue Matheson

Intervening Angels

May, 1937

by Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon

“Did you read them?” Tom Wintermute, a middle-aged farmer in a worn Sunday suit, leaned forward on a plain metal chair, elbows on his knees, hat clasped between his hands. He addressed his son, Johnny, who was propped up on pillows in a hospital bed in the Pembina Hills Sanatorium near Ninette, Manitoba. On his previous visit, a good three weeks prior, he’d given his son a book and an old yellowed clipping to read. The clipping was out of The London Evening News in 1914, a story called “The Bowmen” by Arthur Machen. The accompanying book was On the Side of the Angels: The Story of the Angels at Mons: An Answer to “The Bowmen” by Harold Begbie.

Tom knew “The Bowmen” was a story to inspire any young lad, about angels intervening on the side of the English in the Great War in the Battle of Mons. For a young reader, such as Johnny, the accompanying book was another matter altogether.

In a queer turn of events, the author Arthur Machen had published “The Bowmen” as a fiction, but it turned out that numerous soldiers had, in fact, seen angels at Mons. 96 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 97 Machen tried to argue that the story he’d written was pure invention, but across England at and munching their hay, and sensing danger without seeing it, Tommy threw out his in the churches and in the streets, uproar arose, claiming the angels truly had been seen. arm to stop Johnny from moving forward, whispering, “Wait!” He saved the two of them Begbie’s book attempted to prove the soldier’s accounts of angels were true. He suggested from being gored to death like their poor dog, Rover, who scooted onward into the path that Machen, the author, had written “The Bowmen” through telepathic communication of the bull whose owners aptly named Destruction. with dying soldiers who had seen the angels, a great mystery to be sure. Had Tom done To be sure, Johnny had been riveted by all the accounts of soldiers with their bloody the wrong thing by putting before his sick thirteen-year-old son such a controversial wounds and their astonishing visions. But it disturbed him that his father had given him report? What had his son made of the book? such a book when he was ill, a book all about angels and ghosts and death. Johnny had “I read them.” His face was pale, haloed by a mess of dark hair, a frown line etched no intention of dying. “What I want to know is why you asked me to read them.” between boyish blue eyes. He thought “The Bowmen” was all right, but he enjoyed Tom twisted his hat, and then untwisted it to pat it back into shape. He hadn’t Begbie’s book more than anything he’d ever read, a book of new science, showing how expected such a direct question. What should he tell him? That he feared Johnny might all the universe was connected and that the minds of men could reach anywhere through die? That back in the Old Country, death by consumption had been common enough telepathy. amongst the folk of his village, and more common in those who went to work in the Johnny knew this was true, being a twin. He and Tommy often read each other’s factories? That his young Uncle Bertram, a bachelor who taught him his ABCs and how minds, finished each other’s thoughts and sentences. He wished he could have given to row a boat and make a wily snare, had wasted away just like Johnny, until he coughed Begbie his own hundreds of examples of telepathy to beef up his book, the countless blood and died? That if worse came to worst, he wanted his son to die with a sense of times they started to talk of the same matter at the same time; the time when they were hope, like so many others had done in the Great War because of what was in that book? four years old, when Tommy got lost in the wild west crowd at the Polo Park horse races, Johnny’s future was precarious, most certainly, but whatever the outcome, Tom so he, Johnny, took their father’s hand and zigzagged through the crowd to the place knew the time was right to talk big ideas with a son who’s had to grow up too quickly. where Tommy stood marveling over a Coca Cola billboard of a dark-haired rosy-cheeked The loss of his sister, Charlotte. A life-threatening illness. Johnny was an entirely different lady in a blue gingham apron who bore an uncanny resemblance to a carefree version of lad than he’d been a year before. As scrawny as he was, he frightened Tom; he was like a their mother, leaning back in a chair, pop bottle in hand; or the time he was about to wise old man. Tom cleared his throat. “Well, I wanted you to know something about me round the corner of the barn where an escaped bull from a neighboring farm was tearing that I never told anyone, except your mother.” 98 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 99 Johnny leaned sidewise towards his father, feebly propping himself up on an elbow, “My favorite part!” said Johnny. “Except that her name is the same as our teacher at fire in his gaunt face. “What? Were you there, at the Battle of Mons?” school. Our Miss Campbell is a battle-axe.”

“I was. And…” He would exaggerate, as he’d planned, to give comfort. “I saw the “Same name but a different person,” winked Tom, who thought she was a battle-axe angels.” too. “Let me read the passage to you,” Tom Wintermute continued. “‘He was propped in a corner, his left arm tied up in a peasant woman’s head kerchief, and his head newly “You saw the angels!” Johnny plunked back onto the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. bandaged. He should have been in a state of collapse from loss of blood, for his tattered He repeated quietly almost to himself. “My own father was at Mons and saw the angels.” uniform was soaked and caked in blood, and his face paper-white under the dirt of He picked up the book and looked at the cover, at the title, On the Side of the Angels, conflict…’ (64-65). Then, you’ll recall, the soldier asked Miss Campbell for a medal of and at the two robed and winged angels, their swords held high, each blade crossing St. George.” the other to create a holy arch over the book title. Johnny knew his father would never lie to him. He was a God-fearing man. So, everything in the book was true, just as the “Did you see soldiers in that condition, Father?” Johnny coughed into his blanket, author, Mr. Begbie argued. The book, published in 1915, was one of the few his father all the while keeping his eyes on his father. He had never dared to ask his father anything had brought over from England, and it had been innocently tucked in the little bookcase about the war. Children knew. The men wouldn’t talk to anyone who wasn’t there. The war in their Manitoba farmhouse for years. Johnny had at times looked with interest at the worked away on the men, making them turn crazy and mean at the slightest provocation, cover, never quite curious enough to open the book, and here, all the while, it contained but the war tied their tongues. Now, suddenly, his father had created an opening, as if within it a world of wonders. In his unutterably boring life in the San, he had avidly read they were man to man. the mysterious document. “Father, it’s so strange.” “I saw worse,” said Tom. “I was at the Front, in and out of the trenches, fighting for “The events were strange. May I have the book so I can read you the part that has four years, son. I won’t say more, but I saw worse. Broke my heart, breaks me still. Now, special meaning for me?” Johnny handed his father the small volume. Tom thumbed what it is, about that young man, is that I likely knew him. I have my suspicions that he through the pages, landing on one on which he’d turned down the page corner many was a lad called Jack Manning who died. You see, I might have known the dying boy in long years before. “Do you remember the part about the nurse, Miss Campbell, who was the book because I was a Lancashire Fusilier, just like him.” called to the side of a wounded Englishman?” “You were?”

100 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 101 “I was.” dream. Johnny felt as if a rare bird had flown into the room; he was afraid if he moved the wrong way, startled it, it would be gone. Johnny took in the news with a raspy whistle. “Can I read the next part?” Johnny spoke with a passion his father hadn’t heard in Tom continued. “The cottage I grew up in was near a village called Banks, Lancashire, so long. Tom put the book into Johnny’s thin hands. Johnny looked at his father and said, as beautiful a countryside as you could find, a place dreamt up by the Sea, we always “Do you know, I read this part out loud when I was reading the book. If the nurses were said. But there was more hardship than beauty in that life. You’ve no idea, really, what it outside the door, they must have thought I’d gone off my rocker. But I wanted to hear was like, eight people in one room, a cow in the attached byre, to keep us warm in the the soldier’s voice, his way of speaking. It’s funny.” wet chill of winter, no proper windows, the stink of humans and animals and the bitter smoke from peat in the hearth, the riot of noise. Oh, we had our moments, singing “Funny!” exclaimed Tom. “It’s pure poetry, it is!” and dancing, or as children, playing with alleys—marbles to you, or fishing or hunting “That’s it!” said Johnny. “Poetry. Here goes. ‘We all saw it. First there was a sort of songbirds with a catapult for the womenfolk to cook into a pie.” a yellow mist like, sort of risin’ before the Germans as they come to the top of the hill, Johnny grimaced. “What songbirds?” come on like a solid wall they did—springing out of the earth just solid, no end to ‘em. I just give up. No use fighting the whole German race, thinks I; it’s all up with us.’” “Sparrows, robins, finches. Aye, we were poor enough to rescue our hunger with those tiny morsels, while the squire who owned the land grew fat. I was a slave to the “And so it was—all up with us!” stated Tom. garden and later the field.” His voice lowered, and he looked at his old shoes on the Johnny continued. “’The next minute comes this funny cloud of light, and when it scrubbed linoleum. “When I was one-and-twenty, I found my father dead in the field, clears off there’s a tall man with yellow hair in golden armour, on a white horse, holding his ale barrel drained beside him. I might well have carried on that dismal life, but the his sword up, and his mouth open as if he was saying, ‘Come on, boys! I’ll put the kybosh Great War started and I seized the opportunity to join the Lancashire Fusiliers for pay. on the devils.’ Sort of ‘This is my picnic’ expression. Then, before you could say knife, the That’s how I ended up in Mons.” Germans had turned and we were after them, fighting like ninety. We had a few scores to Johnny had never heard his father share so much. His father was a closed man, settle, Sister, and we fair settled them (56).’” Johnny put down the book. “I would never miserly about revealing personal history. “None of your damn business!” was his common have believed it, if I hadn’t read the whole book, all the men’s stories. Dying men, men retort. And now—Banks, Lancashire. A place dreamt up by the Sea, as if the Sea could with nothing to lose, and no reason to lie. What did you see, Father?”

102 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 103 The truth was that Tom hadn’t seen anything but he was dead certain that others nonsense man. I can hardly imagine an angel, let alone see one. Some of the other boys, had. But to convince his son of God’s intervention, he knew he had to pretend that they were poets, they were. They were painters. They were fine-bred gentlemen with fine- he’d seen something too. Tom told the white lie he’d cooked up at home, the lie that bred ideas. But, you see, it doesn’t matter what each of us saw. We were all in it together. even he almost believed after he’d practiced it so many times to tell Johnny. “When I We all had the strange unearthly feeling, and so did the Germans. Even their horses went said, ‘I saw the angels,’ well, I didn’t see them like that fellow did. I didn’t see the figure skittish, turned, and galloped off. Why, it’s as if we were all inside God’s head. Something of Saint George—or Saint Michael, as the French did. I didn’t see the three great and said, ‘Stop.’ And we stopped.” winged beings that some saw. But I saw the Light.” Tom’s eyes filled. Even if he hadn’t “I believe you, Father,” said Johnny. “It makes sense. Why wouldn’t God help the seen anything, he’d felt God’s presence along with the rest. “It’s as all the accounts say. English? They were in the right.” There was Something that came between us and them. Our men were exhausted and “Perhaps,” said Tom, catapulted into a long-standing quandary. That innocent outnumbered. There is no way we could have survived if that Something hadn’t helped explanation wasn’t one he believed. God didn’t defend those who deserved to be defended. us.” How many times had he prayed, as a child, that God stop his father when the drunken “You didn’t see angels up there. Just a Light.” rages and beatings began? Sometimes, in his adult own life, he’d beaten his wife Jean “That’s so. No actual angels. But I felt the Holy Presence, the same as the rest. I when she didn’t deserve it—though most times she did—and hadn’t she asked God to have no doubt.” stop him to no avail? Where was his daughter, Charlotte, who’d been gone for a year? Why was Johnny fighting for his life? God wasn’t fair. God didn’t reward the good. No, “I don’t think I’d see angels either,” decided Johnny. Since the disappearance of his Job was the truest book in the Bible. But at Mons, God stepped in. God just wanted sister, Charlotte, he’d called to her spirit, begging her to appear to him and she hadn’t both sides to stop fighting. Tom looked at Johnny. He’d tell him, whether he understood come once. He knew Charlotte. She’d come if she could. So, he couldn’t decide if she or not. “Johnny, I don’t know that God was favoring the English over the Germans. We hadn’t appeared because God wouldn’t let her or because ghosts weren’t real or because soldiers were all hard done by, by arm-chair Generals. I think God didn’t approve of the she was still alive. He hoped she was still alive. “No, no angels for me.” Great War. He’d had enough.” “Maybe not. Maybe not. But you’d feel the Presence.” Tom added, “I’ve thought “If I were God, I wouldn’t let bad things happen,” said Johnny. He wouldn’t let it over, why one would see this and another that. I’m a practical man, a farmer, a no- boys get T.B., for one thing. For another, he wouldn’t let sisters disappear. He wouldn’t 104 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 105 let fathers beat mothers. God’s world was out of control, a darkness always welling up to overwhelm people. Sometimes people were at fault, but mostly, God’s world was not a safe place.

“Ah, well. God started us off in the Garden of Eden,” said Tom. “But we weren’t LINGUISTICS ready for Paradise.” He didn’t want to preach to his son right then, but if Johnny got worse, he might die. Then he’d have to meet his Maker. “We must each get ready for Because he couldn’t Paradise.” make them understand peace, Johnny sighed. He wanted to stay close to his father, but the mysterious bird was the gentle man gone from the room. Was his father getting ready for Paradise? Was anybody? His father learned to speak hadn’t told him about his past to encourage him to live; he’d told him about it in case he violence fluently, died. Johnny wasn’t interested in dying. He wanted to live, to figure out how to improve just in case things right here on earth, if God wasn’t interested in the task. “I’m not going to die, a conversation Father,” Johnny said with the defiant anger of the perilously ill. “I’m not planning to see broke out. God or any angels any time soon.”

“That’s my boy,” said Tom, in a voice rough with feelings undisclosed. There, he’d —Allen Berry done it. If his son had to leave the world too soon, like Tom’s young friends unfairly and outrageously blown to bits in the bloody muck at Mons, he’d think of their talk and be comforted by angels as he went.

106 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 107 Treads #1 Sue Matheson

RECONSIDERING IMMORTALITY, CONSUMPTION, & TRAGEDY IN THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF DC COMICS’ SUPERMAN

by Kwasu David Tembo, University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, Scotland

“EPILOGUE: ON THE FOURTH DAY: I STAYED TO WATCH. I SAW THE WHOLE CEREMONY. AND...I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT I SAW...LZYXM LTPKZ, THE SUPERMAN OF THE FIFTH DIMENSION, TOOK THE D.N.A SAMPLE I SAVED FROM SOLARIS AND, TOGETHER, THEY TURNED IT INSIDE OUT THROUGH TIME UNTIL IT BECAME A WOMAN. THAT’S HOW IT STARTED...IT WAS LIKE HE’D WAITED A BILLION YEARS FOR HER. LIKE NOTHING ELSE HAD MEANT ANYTHING IN ALL THAT TIME. IT FELT LIKE THE WHOLE UNIVERSE WAS BEING PUT RIGHT SOMEHOW. AND MEANWHILE HOURMAN, THIS WEEDY LOOKING ROBOT GUY STARTS... GATHERING UP TIME AND PLAYING WITH IT LIKE SILLY PUTTY”

-DC: One Million No. 4 (1998) “Death Star”

108 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 109 INTRODUCTION DC Comics Multiverse which reflect extradiegetic sociopolitical, cultural, and historical reality, to portray Superman’s ‘death’ then is simultaneously to free the character from its The title of this essay may seem to be ostensibly misleading. A cursory glance existential condition of being a super-subject while also mastering the myriad potentials on any search engine containing the words ‘death’ and ‘Superman’ will invariably lead one for new or alternative ipseities, histories, bodies, ideas, values, ecologies, lexicons, and to Superman No. 75 or ‘The Death of Superman!’, a crossover event (an event unfolding even semiologies, by destroying the catalyst of their reification. That said however, in view through multiple titles simultaneously) detailing the ‘death’ of Superman. The story of the fact that Superman does not stay dead, we are invited to ask why that is and what, takes place over three arcs. They are as follows: “Doomsday!” (October 1992-November from a philosophical point of view, are the ramifications of the character’s immortality. 1992); “Funeral for a Friend” (January – June 1993); and “Reign of the Supermen!” (June- Referring closely to Umberto Eco’s essay titled “The Myth Of Superman” (1972), I will October 1993). The resonances of the death of Superman are subsequently explored in attempt to assess the phenomena of Superman’s immortality in terms of athanasia as well the ‘Funeral For A Friend’ story arc dealing with the consequences of Superman’s apparent as timelessness. demise, developed over Justice League Of America No. 70, Adventures Of Superman No. 498, Action Comics No. 685, Man Of Steel No. 20, Superman No. 76, Adventures of Superman MYTHIC STRUCTURES: THE CLASSICAL AND AMERICAN No. 499, Action Comics No. 686, Man of Steel No. 21, and Superman No. 77. Within MONOMYTHS the diegetic narrative of the character, unbeknownst to both enemies and colleagues, Superbeings in superhero comics typically adhere to the pattern of the Classical even beyond the purview of the intrepidity of Batman, Superman spends six months Monomyth put forward in Joseph Campbell’s study of world mythology in The Hero in a reanimation/regeneration stasis after an epic brawl with the extraterrestrial killing with a Thousand Faces (1949). Classical examples of such a journey include Hercules and machine Doomsday. Superman ‘returns’ in Superman No. 81 to once again take up the the Twelve Labours and Aeneas in the Underworld. Superman, however, more readily cause of truth and justice for all. It is clear that Superman’s ‘death’ lacks the permanence conforms to the American Monomyth as described by Jewett and Lawrence in The Myth human beings typically associate with ‘death’; a permanence that is simultaneously a of the American Superhero (2002). The former describes a somewhat contested universal source of relief and anxiety for humanity. A narrative with a clearly defined beginning or archetypal plot for heroic narratives and action in classical mythology from cultures and end furnishes the reader/viewer with existential clarity whereby the chaos, absurdity, across the world. The underlying pattern is as follows: “A hero ventures from the world of and aporais of existence conform to consumable patterns within a clearly defined common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered structural and temporal framework. Within the diegetic and hyperdiegetic earths of the and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with 110 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 111 the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” (Campbell 80). Superman’s tales follow this total victory (utopia), or total defeat (dystopia/death) remain intrinsically unavailable. pattern with certain caveats. This is because one of the central ideas behind Campbell’s For a hero who can’t succeed or die, the trials of the journey are essentially inconclusive. pattern concerns the hero/heroine’s return and reintegration to the place and people of What is the purpose of this monomyth and why is it so pervasive in the collective his/her birth. With the destruction of Krypton being contemporaneous with its own consciousness? To begin, the myth centralizes aspects of a fantastical journey that reinforce birth, for Superman, there is no home or people to which to return. As such, all the the importance of the reproduction and maintenance of social bonds, and the values power, knowledge, and assets accrued over time serve only either itself, or its adoptive and identities of whichever culture the hero/heroine represents. This is emphasized by people and their society. I argue that this inability to complete the heroes’ journey makes in the mythic narrative and its structure which highlights “rites of initiation, in which Superman a disrupted Monomyth. Such disruption exemplifies what Roger D. Abrahams persons depart from their community, undergo trials, and later return to be integrated calls, in his essay “Some Varieties of Heroes in America,” the major type of American as mature adults who can serve [the community] in new ways” (Jewett & Lawrence 6). popular hero, namely, the hero-as-outsider. Heroes-as-outsiders This journey is a preparatory if not an outright pedagogical one that psychologically and

…exist apart from society because of the variance of their vision of what life physically trains the hero/heroine for the task of permanent social responsibility.

should be from that of the city or town dweller [remember that Superman Also, the American Monomyth differentiates itself from the Classical Monomyth was raised by the Kent family on a bucolic farm where agrarian values precisely on the point of the hero’s integration back into the redeemed community. While prevail]; they must fabricate their own ethos and carry it around with them the Classical Monomyth emphasizes reintegration as the final stage in completing the wherever they go. Because of their unbounded optimism, clear-sightedness hero’s journey, the American Monomyth emphasizes the absence of this final stage and and essential egotism whenever this ethos collides with society’s, that of the therefore, the incompletion of the Classical Monomyth. The pattern is as follows: hero prevails...whenever they enter a community, one can predict they will A community in a harmonious paradise is threatened by evil; normal find its wound and cleanse it before they leave...They not never marry, they institutions fail to contend with this threat; a selfless superhero emerges to never find the real heroic culminating in death. They are permanently stuck renounce temptation and carry out the redemptive task; aided by fate, his in the hero role. (Abrahams 359) decisive victory restores the community to its paradisiacal condition; For Superman, being stuck in the hero role results in an inherent, always-already occurring the superhero then recedes into obscurity. (Jewett & Lawrence 6) existential crisis, like a never-ending Today, in which the decisive conclusions of either 112 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 113 With Superman, this framework only holds because two things don’t happen: 1) its Indeed, Superhero comics remain resolutely engaged with these ancient patterns decisive victory never is decisive enough, calling for the necessity of more victories and; and ideas. For the better part of a century, the figure of the comic book superbeing has 2) it doesn’t fade into obscurity because it is a triune being, it is always-already both continually maintained and developed these patterns, translating them into a form more integrated and disintegrated, both inside and outside the community it serves. By ‘triune suitable to a post-industrial society. Directly or indirectly, the genealogy of the figure of being’ I am referring to the fact that Superman is a composite creature, made up of the the comic book superbeing links the modern reader to the ancient adherent or worshiper. tension between three identities, personas, or modes of being “Clark Kent of Smallville; Yet, while most comic book heroes fit these patterns in some way or other, the modern Kansas,” “Kal-El of Krypton;” and “Superman, guardian of Metropolis.” This sense of superhero, like its demigod forebears, remains a figure of fundamental contradiction. For incompletion and circuitousness is further underscored by a central tenant of Superman’s the modern reader looking at Superman, certain questions immediately come to mind. ethic namely, that he doesn’t use his power to kill. This sentiment precludes any kind of In an era of sexual liberation and deconstructive discourse on human sexuality, why do decisive vanquishing of evil, which further assures the incompletion of both the Classical heroes marked by an essential sexual renunciation still exist? In this our post-modern, and American Monomyth. As such, this essential incompletion of the heroes’ journey secularized Information Age, why is the fantasy of redemption through supernatural power means that this narratological framework of the journey can be repeated indefinitely. still so readily demanded and consumed by global audiences? What does the figure of the So, while the Classical Monomyth emphasizes fundamentally pedagogical rites comic book superbeing say about the current modes of modern democracy when some of initiation, the American Monomyth centralizes a narrative of redemption. In this of its most popular fictions concern the rescue of ineffectual democratic institutions and way, it secularizes the Judeo-Christian dramas of community redemption that emerged their ideals by beings that almost exclusively act supra-legally? Does the popularity and throughout American history that combine “elements of the selfless servant who longevity of the comic book superhero represent the desire for a non-democratic or at least impassively gives his life for others and the zealous crusader who destroys evil” (Jewett different form of governance, life style, values or being in general? (Jewett & Lawrence 7-8). & Lawrence 7). This is why it is not uncommon to hear/read comic book superbeings In many ways, being a human being is just as, if not in some ways, more precarious being perceived as replacements for messianic figures. While the credibility of a Christ than it was in ancient times. The Information Age is still beset with the same hazards figure, for example, has experienced a consistent erasure since the Enlightenment, the as those preceding it. From war, poverty, epidemics, and environmental devastation, to comic book superbeing’s superhuman abilities reflect a pervasive interest in transcendent, more modern problems like Cybercrime, surveillance, economic inequality and resource redemptive powers that reason or the scientific method has never totally extirpated from scarcity, being – ancient or modern – is a struggle. When compared with the issues we the popular imagination. contend with daily, it seems that a particularly mythic pattern entrenched in the popular 114 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 115 imagination, given shape and sound by our entertainment, has a lesser degree of urgency. the traditional figure of religion was a character of human or divine origin, Ultimately, we cannot afford to wait for a Messiah, caped or not, to redeem us. whose image had immutable characteristics and an irreversible destiny. It was possible that a story as well as a number of traits backed up the character; On the one hand, the Monomyth’s predilection toward emotional superheroic but the story followed a line of development already established, and it redemption seems to exacerbate all such valuative and existential problems, but, on the filled in the character’s features in a gradual but definitive manner. (15) other hand, the cult of the hero is increasingly ubiquitous in popular culture. Superhero films dominate domestic and global box-offices. The comic convention has expanded and An example of such a hero story – indeed only one of many – is the myth of the twelve attained a level of popularity that now includes popular entertainment from all media labours of Hercules. In an image, a statue, a tapestry, any artistic rendering of Hercules and genres – including console games, network television, theatre, amusement rides, and or any scene from his labours, in a story belonging to him that which distinguishes film (Lawrence & Jewett 14). These include, but are not limited to: Batman: Arkham him from mortal men – his divine features – would be highlighted and reproduced Asylum (2009); Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013); Arrow; Gotham; The Flash (2012-2014, through the artwork. Mythological and messianic heroes are inserted into pre-determined Fox & The CW); It’s A Bird...It’s A Plane...It’s Superman! (1966 Broadway, 2013 New York narrative structures so that the reader/viewer is always-already aware of what has and City Encores!); DC Comics Super Hero Adventures (Six Flags, New Orleans, Louisiana); should happen. The work of art thus contains a recounting of what occurred throughout The DCCU (DC Cinematic Universe). For better or worse, global culture is saturated in the hero’s journey, her/his traits, the trails that beset her/him, how s/he were overcome, the lightning and frenzy that characterizes the concept of being a superbeing. what laurels were conferred upon her/him and so on. What results is a kind of inverse reading or retrolection whereby the narrative looks backward, conforming itself to the A NEVER-ENDING BATTLE: NARRATIVE STRUCTURE AND hero’s status while simultaneously confirming the reasons for her/his repute and status as IMMORTALITY a hero. The traditional heroic figure therefore embodies something elemental, prime, a

Superman is part of a robust genealogy of anthropic mytho-religious hero figures law, trait, or demand and therefore is necessarily predictable. In typical superhero comic which includes Gilgamesh, Samson, and Herakles among numerous others. Where book narrative structures, this traditional retrolective narrotology is reversed. As a result, Superman departs most starkly from these preceding heroes of myth is the manner in “the reader’s main interest is transferred to the unpredictable nature of what will happen which the character’s narrative is presented to the reader. Superman’s presentation is a [whereby] the event [or the essential occurrence that signals a definitive conclusion] has question of narrative structure. Eco states that not happened before the story; it happens while it is being told, and usually the author

116 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 117 does not know what will take place” (Eco 15). narratalogical in nature. This is to say that the character’s diegetic existence is sustained through the device of a floating timeline which is, in view of Eco’s reading of mythological Superman is one of few characters in the history of the comic book medium that narrative structures, traceably mythological. If one considers Superman as a creature of has seen continuous publication since his debut in 1948. Seeing that the Superman’s simultaneity and multiplicity predicated on its psycho-physical power, Otherness, and narrative is still active, that it is still actively consumed and unfinished, there is no set uncanny anthropicness, then the nature of the narrative structure of the comic book precedent regarding how the narrative should end. However, as Eco points out, in order superhero story in which this multiplicity appears is at once the death of superbeing as for the narrative to become myth it needs to end. A paradox thus emerges whereby, in an embodiment of power, potential, and the power of potential. Simultaneously, the order for Superman’s narrative to continue within the aestehtico-narratological mythos it nature of the narrative structure through which the onto-existential complexes that are has established for itself over more than seventy-five years, it must appeal to mythology inextricable from the confluence of the character’s power, uncanny body, and Otherness and interpellate many of its tropes while being essentially un-mythological. As such, signals the birth of the superhero as a being of power and potential whose power of readers read on, some because of childhood nostalgia, some because Superman and the potential is always-already sublimated by a narrative that cannot exist if it actualizes said character’s narratives are valued as essential elements of one’s identity and world view, potential in any definitive way; that is, if Superman acts in such a way so as to affect an some to discover, to know how and at which point in history the narrative ends and event that subsequently results in a conclusion, an end, or a new beginning. As such, becomes mythological. As perhaps the ur-example of an unceasing champion of the the character must shoulder the entirety of diegetic human being and its hunger for downtrodden in the history of post-industrial Western popular culture, Superman and being more, being other than it has heretofore been without the respite of an immovable the character’s entire mythos occur within the remit of this diegetic/hyperdiegetically conclusion in the form of Superman’s own death, nor without being able to decisively purgatorial, liminal position precisely because the character “must be an archetype, the satisfy human being by utopianizing any of DC Comics’ fifty-one earths. totality of certain collective aspirations, and therefore, [it] must necessarily become immobilized in an emblematic and fixed nature which renders [it] easily recognizable” Regardless of which earth in DC Comics’ orrery of worlds the character appears (Eco 15). in, Superman exists in a hyperdiegesis wherein which the diegetic representations of extradiegetic sociopolitics, culture, and history portray humanity as being in constant Part of Superman’s reality is produced and reproduced within the readily consumable need of saving. Within the worlds of superhero comics, humanity (and whichever earth medium of superhero comics, which are serialized in nature. As such, any consideration it is shown to occupy, more generally) is always under threat in some form or other, of the immortality of Superman must acknowledge that it is in part both temporal and

118 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 119 whether originating internally within its own biosphere, or externally from beyond itself on a metaphysical and evolutionary level, but always-already exist within a narrative its exosphere. What is most notable about the so-called ‘resurrection’ of Superman in that simultaneously prohibits all potentiality Superman intimates. Eco’s understanding Superman No. 75 is that that particular event illustrates, despite all the character’s power, of tragedy is decidedly Aristotelian, stating that “a tragic plot...involves the character power that always-already intimates an eschatological potential – be it in the form of the in a series of events, reversals, recognitions, pitiful and terrifying cases that culminate redemption or destruction of humankind – that a conclusive event, the ending of a world in a catastrophe” (Eco 15). However, if one thinks of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Hamlet, both in terms of its destruction or fundamental changing, is always delayed. As such, Julius Caesar, Othello and Macbeth, the respective protagonists of these narratives find for nearly a century to date, the narrative continues, never arriving at a reified ending. themselves invariably entangled in situations, occurrences, and actions which propel This immediately invites various questions, some which cannot be answered due to their them toward the certainty of a tragic conclusion namely, their own deaths. Regardless of inalienably temporal nature. For example, will Superman one day die and stay dead? Will the power of their rank and station in each instance – emperor, general, king, and prince Superman one day decide to abandon all earths, as does Dr. Manhattan in Dave Gibbons – its cannot allay or defer the catastrophic destiny which their actions lead them toward. and Alan Moores’ seminal Watchmen (1986)? Will Superman turn on the creatures Tragedy, therefore, is also predicated on the irreversibility of a catastrophic conclusion ‘he’ under oath, swore to protect? Will Superman ever use its alien powers, faculties, which cannot be delayed by the protagonist, despite the power he or she commands. In and apparatuses collected from across the galaxy to make humanity like ‘him’? Will this sense, Superman and the character’s history suggest that even the god-like power Superman ever know peace? Will Superman ever know happiness? In terms of athanasia of a superbeing is tragic in nature. Due to the formal aspects of the narrative structure and timelessness, I believe that the history of Superman to date always leaves the reader’s within which it occurs, neither its power nor its being can be completely consumed in consumption of both character and plot perpetually incomplete, unsatisfactory, and in any act, tragic or otherwise. In this way, the narrative structure Superman finds itself delay. entangled in resembles that of Hamlet. In Hamlet, Shakespeare illustrates all attempts by the protagonist to delay the inevitability of the tragic act that will totally consume him TRAGEDY, HUNGER, & CONSUMPTION and bring his narrative to the resolution of a conclusion, which in Hamlet’s case, is the

The lack of any conclusive dramatic resolution in the Superman mythos is what murder of Claudius. Superman’s entire existence and power are always-already delayed makes the character so tragic. By tragic I mean that the combination of Superman’s by the narrative structure, tropes, conventions, and serialized nature of the superhero power and Otherness provide a potent opportunity for diegetic humanity to revalue comic. This phenomena is certainly also true of large scale narrative shifts that affect Superman and its history. For example, retroactive continuities (rectons) and reboots 120 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 121 in the DC comics Multiverse in such monumental events as Crisis on Infinite Earths to put Superman to the test of several obstacles which are intriguing because they are (1985), Infinite Crisis(2005-2006), Flashpoint (2011), and The New 52 (2011-2016) unforeseen but which are, however, surmountable by the hero. In that case two effects are would all suggest that Superman’s narrative has in some way come to an end. But what obtained. First of all, the reader is struck by the strangeness of the obstacles – diabolically has actually occurred are changes made that will affect how Superman’s narratives are conceived inventions, curiously equipped apparitions from outer space, machines that can produced, reproduced, and consumed. As such, the infinitely inconclusive and infinitely transmit one through time, teratological results of new experiments, the cunning reproducible or regenerative aspects of the history of Superman suggests that something of evil scientists to overwhelm Superman with kryptonite, the hero’s struggles with as definitive as the death of Superman has hitherto invariably had to be delayed, the object creatures endowed with powers equal to his, such as Mxyzptlk, the gnome, who comes of some distant future, or imaginary. What is at stake here? The answer is as paradoxical from the fifth dimension and who can be countered only if Superman manages to make as it is dis-empowering: Superman can neither save nor destroy the a diegetic world him pronounce his own name backwards (Kltpzyxm); etc. Second thanks to the hero’s because Superman exists in worlds driven by a continuous albeit circuitous narrative unquestionable superiority, the crisis is rapidly resolved and the account is maintained structure. The series of actions and events Superman affects are paradoxically dis-affected within the bounds of the short story. (Eco 16) by the very circuitousness of the continuity they propel. In this sense, with the possibility With regard to strangeness, consider the epigraph to this section. It is taken from of definitive affectivity and the repercussions therefrom called into question by the very Grant Morrison’s 1998 limited series DC One Million, illustrated by Val Semeikis. This structure in which such utopian/dystopian possibilities emerge, the circuitousness of story follows the Justice League of America from the twentieth century’s co-operation Superman’s narrative’s continuity becomes an end in itself and must be maintained ad with the Justice League of the eight hundred and fifty third century in order to defeat infinitum. Because of this, one is invited to entertain a nihilistic reading of Superman the immortal supervillain Vandal Savage (who exists in both temporalities and all those and ask, “well, what does Superman’s power mean if it is unable to decisively affect the between) and Superman Prime’s (the original Superman) future nemesis Solaris, the fundamental conditions of its world(s)? Can Superman really change, save, or destroy Tyrant Sun. Through the four part event, Morrison hyper-extends the reader’s gaze, anything? Can Superman actually bring something truly new into its world(s)? Why allowing one to read through and across time, to stare into the sun as it were. What one does Superman even act, or act in the invariably moralistic way it does if its actions can sees at the conclusion of this narrative is Superman’s resurrection of Louis Lane in which be reduced to naught by reboots and retcons?” she is conferred superpowers and immortality like Superman. The text ‘concludes’ with

I view of these questions, it would then seem that there is nothing left to do except the tacit suggestion that the pair will live together, happily, and forever. This text, like

122 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 123 Morrison’s 2005 All-Star Superman (hereon All-Star) and Alan Moore’s 1986 Superman: attempt to conclude or ‘retire’ Superman’s narrative. The story unfolds through a framed What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (hereon Man of Tomorrow?)are attempts at narrative set a decade after the last sighting of Superman. The story is told primarily from ‘closing the loop’, so to speak. Morrison ‘rewards’ Superman for the character’s centuries Lois Lane’s retrospective perspective where she recounts the conclusion of Superman’s of service by presenting a distant, almost unimaginable future in which, through the “career” to a journalist from the Daily Planet. In her account, Superman comes up against impossible techno-mystical apparatuses of the future, Superman is able to have what its most tenacious enemy, the fifth dimensional being named Mxyzptlk. In this, their final it truly desires namely, an eternity with Lois Lane. This conclusion is pre-empted in encounter according to Moore, Superman is left with no choice but to trap Mxyzptlk Morrison’s future work All-Star Superman. At the conclusion of All-Star, Superman, between its own dimension and the Phantom Zone, essentially trapping it between dying under the adverse effects to hyper exposure to solar radiation at the hands of Dr. dimensions and tearing or ripping it apart. Being struck with the significance of breaking Quintum/Lex Luthor, finds out that its body is transforming, becoming, or converting its one inviolable rule that forbids it, under any circumstances, to kill, Superman steps itself into a solar radio-consciousness. The character’s last act against Lex Luthor and into a chamber in the Fortress of Solitude containing Gold Kryptonite. Gold Kryptonite Solaris, the Tyrant Sun from the 853rd century, who have tampered with the Sun, making affects a Kryptonian on an earth by permanently stripping them of their powers. After it unstable, Superman flies into the sun and repairs it with the massive amounts of Superman’s confrontation and extreme act of penance, the character disappears into the energy emanating from its hyper-charged body, effectively ‘sacrificing’ itself for the Arctic wasteland, never to be seen again. Its body is never recovered, leaving its colleagues planet. Despite the formal prohibitions acting against the definitive end of Superman’s and lover to assume that it had completed a ritual suicide through which it had, much narrative, Morrison’s dual ‘conclusion’ in both DC One Million and All-Star Superman like the Creature/Adam in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, removed to the Arctic wasteland, evokes the Romanticism of the Liebestod, whereby Superman’s noble quest and its tragic de-powered, to die. In Moore’s hands, Superman’s continual existence and its adamant ‘conclusion’ attempts to situate Superman and Louis Lane within the same tradition adherence to prescriptive and out-dated moral and ethical codes is treated in such a way as Tristan and Isolde, Pyramus and Thisbe, Romeo and Juliet, Liang Shanbo and Zhu as to suggest that keeping Superman embroiled in its purgatorial never-ending-battle is a Yingtai (or ‘the Butterfly Lovers’), Layla and Majnun, and Popocatepetl and Iztaccihautl. continuous act of cruelty. Moore’s story, diligently and with respect, imagines a definitive end for Superman and the tragedy of its circuitousness much in the same way one puts Moore is seemingly more severe. Moore’s Man of Tomorrow? serves a dual purpose. down an ailing pet. The end of the comic reveals that when Lois states that she never Firstly, it is a means for Moore to pay homage to Superman’s near century long history. saw Superman again, she is referring to the character’s supra-human Otherness and power Secondly, acting against his typical revisionist narratological style, Moore uses this story to and the pro-global civic-minded use of that power through the ‘Superman’ persona, one 124 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 125 of three alongside ‘Clark Kent’ and ‘Kal-El’. The comic concludes with the revelation older, if only by an hour; [its] storehouse of personal experiences has irreversibly enlarged” that Jordan Elliot, the working-class suburban mechanic husband of Lois Lane, is in fact (Eco 16). In this sense, to act, for Superman, Othello, Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, you, or the now de-powered Superman. In this sense, by eradicating the character’s birthright me means to consume oneself. of uncanniness, Otherness, and power, Moore allows Superman to have what it is that ON CONSUMPTION it wants most, a life and child with Lois Lane. In essence, the conclusions of Morrison and Moores’ respective narratives are identical. Where they differ is the question of what Superman finds itself in a difficult onto-existential and narrotological position. The becomes of Superman’s power. Through DC One Million and All-Star, Morrison suggests character must be kept from consuming itself totally, whether through a series of events that the perpetuity of Superman’s existence is an essential byproduct of its power. As or a single eschatonic, utopian, dystopian Event. It must, like hero figures of classical such, the only way for the character to be happy, that is, to be with Lois Lane, while and messianic mytho-religion and folklore, remain ‘inconsumable’. The hero figures empowered is for her to become empowered in turn. Moore’s narrative acquiesces to of classical and messianic mytho-religion and folklore became incosumable precisely anthropic models of Western, post-industrial happiness in a way that suggests that power because they “were already ‘consumed’ in some exemplary action. Or else [they] had and happiness are dialectically opposed and that Superman is always-already trapped at the possibility of a continuing rebirth or of symbolizing some vegetative cycle – or at the simultaneous apex and nadir of these two antipodes. least a certain circularity of events of even of life itself” (Eco 16). One need only think of regenerative figures of myth and religion and myth, such as Quetzalcoatl, Dionysus, Though it is true that Superman’s narrative arcs can be ‘complete’ stories in Barbarika, Prometheus, Osiris, Baldr, Meng Po, Heitsi-Eibib, or Jesus to see that whilst themselves, they do not resolve or consume the character in question. They do not resolve Superman is genealogically associated with these and other figures of myth and religion, the character’s narrative but rather keep it enmeshed in the circularity of the following the character is also immersed in the quotidian aspects of human being; through the narratological equation: Earth/human being->threat->intervention of Superman and its aesthetic onto-existential apparatus known as ‘Clark Kent’, the character apes an power->threat overcome->temporary resolution->repeat. It is here that a nihilistic reading ‘ordinary man’s life’ and as such is entrenched in the sociopolitics, culture, and historical of Superman becomes problematic. Though Superman is enmeshed in a seemingly non- movement of the everyday. The suppression or stagnation of the utopian potential of the progressive narrative structure, the character does act. As such, once the trail set upon character’s power and Otherness is predicated on the narrative structure that ultimately Superman is overcome, at the conclusion of the arc or story interval, “Superman has still turns a superbeing into a man. As such, Superman, the so-called ‘ Man of Tomorrow’, is accomplished something” and as such, it “has taken a step toward death, [it] has gotten trapped in an endless today, to the inalienably human concern for the conditions of life 126 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 127 and death. The character’s latent promise of a resplendent future is reduced invariably to and the metaphysical association between cause, effect, and the time in which both occur. the circuitous trials of a perpetual present. What is at stake here? What are we to make of In short, “in Superman it is the concept of time that breaks down. The very structure of this inconclusiveness? On the one hand, we can declare, as Eco does, that “an immortal time falls apart, not in the temporal sphere about which it is told, but rather, in the time in Superman would no longer be a man, but a god, and the public’s identification with which it is told” (Eco 17). In Alex Ross and Paul Dini’s Superman: Peace On Earth (1998), [its] double identity would fall by the wayside” (Eco 16). On the other hand, I believe Superman sets itself to the task of fighting world hunger for one day. This monumental that Superman is, in the last instance, more god than man and yet neither. Identification task, undertaken within the narrative frame of twenty-four hours, ultimately results in with Superman through ‘Clark Kent’, being only one of three aesthetic onto-existental Superman failing in its task at which point this story ends. This story, with its elemental personae worn by the character, is neither reliable nor enough to contain the power theme of Superman battling both for and against the human condition, namely the Superman possesses. Where does this leave the character in question? Though Superman’s oppressive circuitousness of hunger, does not take place in the contingent diegetic reality, presence on an earth, a diegetic representation of First Contact or the coming of the pocket dimension, microverse, or divergent timeline of an Elseworlds story for example, Other more broadly, is itself in many ways a utopian moment that catalyses the necessary nor is the narrative cannon either. This is a story about a being attempting to use its power revaluation of human being, the character remains a purgatorial figure, vibrating in a to affect perhaps the fundamental aspect of human being itself, namely the essential need quotidian middle, a beast of burden, on the the axiom of changing a world in a definitive to survive, to continue somewhere and sometime else. But what is the value of a story as and spectacular way. As such, Superman “must remain ‘inconsumable’ and at the same important in its symbolic value as this, which reduces Superman and its relationship to time be ‘consumed’ according to the way of everyday life. [It] possess the characteristics human being to a fundamental level (the power to survive) that takes place outside of the of timeless myth, but is accepted only because [its] activities take place in our human and various tributaries that form the chronotope of the DC Comics hyperdiegesis? In a way, everyday world and time” (Eco 16). Peace On Earth is subject to what must inevitably occur under the nature of the narrative structure Superman exists in. That is, after this or any Superman story concludes, DAILY PLANET: TIME AND TIMELESSNESS in the same book, or in the edition of the following week, a new story begins. The consideration of the condition of human being and all the phenomena If it took Superman up again at the point where [it] left off, [it] would have encountered therein is invariably subtended by time. The narrative structure that, in many taken a step toward death. On the other hand, to begin a story without ways, grounds Superman’s existence simultaneously delays time, temporal progression, showing that another had preceded it would manage, momentarily, to

128 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 129 remove Superman from the law that leads from life to death through time. New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997) episode entitled “Swear To God, This Time (Eco 17) We’re Not Kidding” appearing in season four, also depicting the marriage of Lois and Clark/Superman. This event remained canonical up until the DCU reboot event entitled The outcome of this temporal disjointedness that, as long as the character’s narrative Flashpoint (2011). Understandably Eco, having written his essay in the spring of 1972, exists, delays the exhaustion of Superman’s power in some definitive act(s), is a sort of years before both marriages, would have only hoaxes, dreams, and hypothetical ‘what oneric, amnesiac atmosphere; it seems to facilitate a penetrating kind of forgetting in if’ scenarios as references. The fact that these marriages take place in tributary timelines both the reader and Superman itself: a forgetting that takes as its object what this chapter or have been reduced to non-canonicity by universal rebooting actually helps illustrate claims is always-already at stake when Superman is considered, namely the power to why Superman cannot consume itself or die. This is because the marriage of Superman, affect a change in being on an earth. to anyone, would signal an event that would produce an irreversible movement toward As mentioned above, the various dystopian/utopian repercussions of Superman’s Superman’s death. To be consumed, to give itself, ritually, legally, and symbolically to existence are typically explored elsewhere. Elseworlds stories act as narrative heterotopias another being in any kind of exclusive way would be an irreversible act of consumption, wherein which Superman’s onto-existential disruptivity may be explored, without latent within which is an irreversible conclusivity, ending, or resolution which would disrupting the circular cannon from which the character emerged in the first place. Eco rupture the circuitousness of the character’s mythos. As such, such a scenario can only be calls this an original solution, but it does not so much solve as it does delay. Eco sites the explored safely, meaning that any definitive event or act that would result in a movement example of Superman’s marriage to Lois Lane as a wish fulfilled through the subjunctive toward the consumption of the character in question must remain essentially hypothetical, mood of the Elseworld narrative. Though it is true that the marriage of Lois and Clark/ or imaginary. In this sense, marriage, death, and exile are all consumptive acts that would Superman are, in the main continuity of Earth-One, typically either hoaxes, dreams, or firstly be inimical with Superman’s civic consciousness and secondly, would result in imaginary tales as Eco says, there are two notable examples that must be mentioned. Superman’s power being consumed illegitimately, that is, not in the pursuit of truth and Action Comics No. 484 (1978) entitled “Superman Takes a Wife” and the cross-media justice for all. Inherent in the narrative structure of Superman that prevents this kind of event Superman: The Wedding Album (1996) both depict the actual marriage of Superman consumption is a type of chastity and Platonism with regard to the character’s affections and Lois Lane. The first of the two aforementioned marriage narratives occurs in the toward Lois Lane, for example. The consummation of the character’s desires as such must Earth-Two continuity and, as such, can be viewed as non-canonical. The second takes always-already be momentary or indefinitely delayed despite its power or will to reify place in Earth-One continuity and coincides with the television series Lois & Clark: The said desires. The number of imaginary tales, Elseworld stories and general non-canonical 130 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 131 narratives that in some way reward or end Superman’s narrative are numerous. They serve but its superlative nature is governed by a relentless framework that makes it ordinary, to satisfy the reader’s desire to experience what would happen if Superman actually did leaving it stunted as a man and feeble as a god. this or that, if Superman were to experience a myriad of phenomena that the character’s As a result, Superman is trapped in a narrative situation that necessarily produces canonical narrative structure forbids. What results is that this “massive bombardment an irresolvable existential crisis. The character can neither succeed in its task of solving a of events which are no longer tied together by any strand of logic, whose interaction is fundamental problem of human being for to do so would be to totally consume it and ruled no longer by any necessity [and as such,] the reader [stands to lose] the notion of produce an irreversible utopian situation in which the world would no longer have any temporal progression” (Eco 18). need of Superman. Nor can Superman abandon its task entirely as shown in the final pages What is at stake in the idea of the necessary prevention of consumption or death of Moore’s Man of Tomorrow and Morrison’s All-Star, either through exile, de-powering, through the device of a continuous, albeit immobile, present? One answer is that the or death. In this sense, Superman’s very existence within the diegetic frameworks of the reader becomes accustomed to the notion of events occurring in a circuitous present DC Comics Multiverse forbids the poignancy and catharsis of either outcomes. Though whereby the necessary temporal constituent that dictates them is effaced. Inherent in the character has the power to interrupt and revalue being on an earth in a direct manner, this loss of temporal sensitivity for Superman is the existence of any kind freedom of will Superman’s mission of saving or changing the world must inevitably, necessarily always- and the irreducible delay of the dualistic potential for dystopia/ utopia of the character’s already fail. The character must therefore remain the ‘man’ who has everything and power. This fact only exacerbates the terminal displacement and tragic nature of the nothing at once, a being that is everything and nothing at once, a creature of potent character. Because of its power, Superman is unable to live what one could consider to impotence, a beast of burden playing at a humility and a manhood that simply do not be a full life both as an Earthling or as a Kryptonian. Whilst on an earth substantiated by and cannot exist for it. In this sense, to wish death upon Superman begins to appear like the narratological rules of cannonicity, having a wife, children, or anything resembling mercy. Whether one views Superman as a invading one-being army, or a guardian or a normal human life means death. Superman thinks like a human and therefore desires redeemer of human being, in the last instance, one has to decide what value these stories what human beings desire. Despite having the power to re-create what it means to be that occur elsewhere, in terms of space, time, and canonicity, have. One has to reconcile on an earth, to produce alternative ways of being, the character has no alternative to the paradoxically purgatorial nature of the character in question and the necessity of this being on an earth: Krypton no longer exists, it cannot have a Kryptonian life either. The nature dictated by the narrative structure within which it occurs. character’s existence is one of irresolvable crisis whereby it is always-already extraordinary,

132 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 133 WORKS CITED

HUNGER Abrahams, Roger D. “Some Varieties of Heroes in America.” Journal of the Folklore

Institute, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1966, pp. 341-362. I hold your language in my pocket,

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. California USA: New World she wears your feathers in her hair; their feet on your land – Library, 2008. Print. our feet on your land. Eco, Umberto & Natalie Chilton. “The Myth of Superman.” Diacritics Vol. 2. No. 1 No(w)where do we go? (1972):14-22. JSTOR. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. green card and Jewett, Robert & John Shelton Lawrence. The American Monomyth. Garden City, N.Y.: black snake with Anchor Press, 1977. Print. white skin on

Moore, Alan & Dave Gibbons. Superman:Whatever Happened To The Man Of red path but Tomorrow?. London: Titan, 2010. Print. it’s not like I know Morrison, Grant & Val Semeiks. DC: One Million Vol. 1, No. 4. New York: DC anything. Comics, 1998. Print. The Windigo devours –your people –my people. He digests the wind and leaves us with no colors. Only snow.

—Léna Remy-Kovach

134 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 135 Winter Eventide Sue Matheson THE MACROECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF EDUCATION TOURISM TO BRITAIN’S ECONOMY, 1985 – 2015

by Ben-Akinduro C. Funmike, University of Lagos Lagos, Nigeria

INTRODUCTION

The replacement of industrial revolution with finance and services industry, especially in the present twenty-first century, saw the bulk of Britain’s economy becoming dependent on services by 2012. Services produced a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita that placed it third among the world’s ten largest economies. The viable education tourism, a branch in a subset of the Visitor economy, is gradually becoming a global competitive market. International education assumed global importance when students’ number from 1.3 million in 1990 increased to 4.3 million in 2011–12. By extrication, the contribution of international students to macroeconomic activity and export earnings, claim an impressive percentage of the billions generated from education in 2011–2012 and 18% of jobs created; aside from knock-on effect. Unfortunately, this practicable vehicle of economic growth is victimised by UK’s domestic policies and the politicisation of immigration rules. In a mercantilist approach, the UK resorted to antiquated methods

136 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 137 in dealing with education tourists especially from 2012. Focusing on university education placements, practicality, and networking. Others are: teaching methodology, diversity, and emphasising on international students, this paper, in four parts, examines the good learning environment, immigration rules, international accreditation and vibrant macroeconomic sustainability of education tourism to Britain’s economy, 1985–2015. marketing of liaisons and agents facilitating Admission and Visa procedure. Basically, for The first part outlines the itinerary of education tourism, the second discusses its impacts, internationals, major attractions are: growing middle-class, sudden changes in currency, the third part examines its viability, and the fourth discusses threats to viability before positive policy changes, and personal motivation, opportunity to learn English as a major concluding.1 language, and transport system.2 Periodisation starts at 1985 when Nigeria was UK’s highest registered African migrants in ET, while the 2015 end date is determined by the ITINERARY OF EDUCATION TOURISM introduction of NHS payment.

The definition of ‘Education Tourism’ (ET) incorporating all kinds of educational The British pedagogic experience is founded on a progression through a wide range of exporting activities, is adopted from the report on: “The Value of Transnational Education study opportunities in institutions. Teaching approach focuses on “disciplines, critical (TNE) to the UK” commissioned by Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). TNE or ET engagement and expertise right from the undergraduate level to the postgraduate”. is defined as ‘award or credit-bearing higher education learning undertaken by students Academic pyramid in the UK include: Pre-preps, Prep schools, High Schools, Sixth Form based in a different country from that of the awarding institution.’ As an industry, Colleges, Further Education, HE, Professional Training and Education Publishing. The Higher Education (HE) is defined as the universities together with the expenditure of its UK uses one educational systems and policies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and staff, international students and international visitors. HE is undertaken by universities, another in Scotland. In 2013, to solve the controversies that trailed the Robbins Report further education colleges, private institutions classified as non-profit institutions, and of 1963, UK took on different policies on HE. Therefore, Wales and Northern Ireland approximately 700 alternative education providers, representing a significant sector of the operated variants of England’s Teaching Excellence Framework (Tef) plan and a new national economy. Ceballos-Lascurain explained that the large market share of UK in ET tuition fee system; while Scotland continues to support undergraduate tuition through is determined by the combination of “market forces and exogenous variables”. These are: the public sector. This study is concerned with the HE Sector provided by universities, quality education, better job opportunities, higher standard of living, and availability of 2. “International student statistics: UK higher education,” Last modified 08/04/2016, accessed 16/07/2016,http:// institutions.ukcisa.org.uk//info-for-universities-colleges--schools/policy-research--statistics/research--statistics/ research funding, infrastructure, vibrant educational sector, career enhancement, choice international-students-in-uk-he/#; See also, Tom Kennedy, “UK Tourism facts and figures,” 20/06/2011. Accessed 04/07/2016, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/tourism/8587231/UK-Tourism-facts-and-figures. html; “Educational systems of the UK and the USA”, n.d. accessed 14/07/2016, http://skola.amoskadan.cz/s_aj/ 1. Trevelyan, George Macaulay O.M. British in the Nineteenth Century and After (1782 – 1919), 2nd ed., 1, 4, 5, AJpdf/aepdf/ae04.pdf; Adesulu, Dayo. “Why Nigerian students patronise foreign schools.” Vanguard (Lagos), October 9, 10 and 15. London: Longmans, 1960; See also, Supporting international education in the UK. UK: ExEdUK, 22, 2015. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/10/why-nigerian-students-patronise-foreign-schools/; Jobbins, David. 2016. http:// ExEd_Parthenon-EY_Supporting_International_Education_062016_WEB.pdf.; Tourism Definitions. “New diversity index helps find multinational campuses” University World News(UK), July 13, 2016, Issue No:422. London: The Tourism Society, 2012; http://www.tourismsociety.org/page/88/tourism-definitions.htm; Mary M http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160712170543350; Ceballos-Lascuráin Héctor, (1996) Kritz, “Why do students study abroad?” University World News(UK), July 1, 2016, Issue No:420. http://www. “Tourism, ecotourism, and protected areas,” https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/html/tourism/section4.html; DOI: universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160630213709566. 10.2305/IUCN.CH.1996.7.en. 138 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 139 liberal arts colleges in taught and research categories and other institutions that award Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka; it is written usually through British international academic degrees. It includes professional education, such as law and medicine, but schools; and select foreign and international centres for private candidates. In Mauritius excludes vocational learning. This limit is factored on the absence of data on other levels and Singapore, the AL is jointly administered by national ministry of education and of study with registered foreign students, especially in independent colleges. Again, most the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, (UCLES). New international international students in the UK especially Africans at 34, 160 in 2012/13, registered for postgraduate students on study in the UK have designed support system such as pre- postgraduate level study at degree-awarding public and private universities.3 Reliability Masters to block any academic inadequacies through an academic curriculum. Again, has constrained data used to trusted agencies such as the BIS, the British Council, there are exchange programmes involving direct study programmes specially arranged by HESA; the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and schools, colleges, universities and experienced study abroad operators for international the Universities UK. students on short-term students’ visa.4

Applicants, after demonstrating funding and written evidence of English language, The pathways are English medium programmes. This enables the English language sector access the UK educational system through a Confirmation of Acceptance to Study CAS), to maintain flow of students, netting £23.3 billion in revenue before policy shift in issued by the sponsor-educational establishment. Degree study for international students 2012–2013. EFL teaches English at 479 centres, for at most 12 months; as the 208 then starts with the necessary foundation courses or pathway programmes in related publicly funded Further Education colleges teach international students on courses field and English as Foreign Language (EFL) to bridge the advanced level part of the of 6 months or longer. In addition, there are: privately owned Pathway Colleges for General Certificate of Education (GCE), lacking in many countries outside the UK. preparatory courses to transit to first degree or postgraduate study. The Independent Another route is the UK Advanced Level (AL) a part of the GCE, and school leaving Higher Education Colleges on non-public funding, teach for creative or vocation- qualification administered by the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) exported focused subjects in a smaller study environment. In its data, English UK revealed that to many Commonwealth countries. In countries, such as Brunei, India, Nigeria, Malaysia, visa restrictions, especially the fact that EFL students are excluded from net migration

3. "International student statistics: UK higher education." UKCISA. n.d. http://institutions.ukcisa.org.uk//info-for- count is responsible for many EFL students’ showing preference for shorter courses of 11 universities-colleges--schools/policy-research--statistics/research--statistics/international-students-in-uk-he/#: See also, Educational systems of the UK and the USA; The impact of universities on the UK economy. UK: Universities UK, months. A BIS research paper also showed reductions in enrolment visa to independent 2014. http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2014/the-impact-of-universities-on- the-uk-economy.pdf; Boxall, Mike. "Higher education white paper: the big changes." The Guardian, May 16, 2016. colleges and further education colleges. From 53,000 studying at independent colleges in https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/may/16/higher-education-white-paper-the-big- changes; Liam Byrne: “We need to put higher education at centre stage of policy,” the Guardian (UK), https://www. 2010/11, it was estimated that 57% less of international students or 22,790 applied. By theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2014/aug/28/liam-byrne-higher-education-policy-reforms; Supporting International Education in the UK; HESA: University EU research funding, HESA: Student Record 2012/13, https:// 4. "International students and net migration - Why students should be counted as net migrants." Migration Watch www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c12051/pdf/c12051.pdf. https://www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/getting-started/ UK. July 1, 2012. http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefing-paper/265; See also, GCE_ Advanced_Level, EY_ international-and-eu-students; Ceballos-Lascuráin Héctor. Supporting_International_Education_062016_WEB.pdf; Dayo Adesulu, “Why Nigerian students...” 140 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 141 2013/14, visa statistics stated a loss of 72% or fewer than 15,000 international students pathways, and UK education at the postgraduate levels. Steps taken to control inflow of studying at independent colleges. Further Education colleges recorded a reduction in the students seems political and anti-economic. Stipulations such as NHS payment, reduced application to enrolment visa between 2011 and 2013, from 78% to 69%, representing number of working hours centred at zero for International Foundation Year (IFY) 65,000 fewer visa applications in these categories than in 2011.5 students, prove of maintenance funds; aside from ambiguous and contentious reasons advanced for visa refusal are encumbrances. Cited for this argument is the December Educational journeys filled with transitions in form of one study to another, or from 2012 visa-refusal incident of 100,000 students not from low-risk countries. It is stated study to work experience opportunities, was eliminated in November 2015 by the Home that the system negates objectivity being almost impossible to get decisions changed even Office. This was preceded in 2012 by cancellation of the automatic Post Study Work when administrative process is reviewed. Accessibility to UK education seems defeated (PSW). The Tier System, which is different categories of student visas, was introduced in by deliberate hurdles placed by Home Office.7 Interviews with Benita Ben-Akinduro 2008 under the Point-Based System. Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) Visa, is granted to and Suzan Ben-Akinduro8, revealed a backlash in drop of Nigerians undertaking IFY, for students set on personal business and endorsed by a University, or through the UK Trade instance, the University of Salford had a zero registration of this category first time ever and Investment’s Sirius Program21. The visa covers 12 months but could be extended in the 2016/17 academic session. to 24 months on positive progress. Students Tier 2 (General) allows students a period of five years to work as a skilled worker with a licensed employer if there is a guarantee of THE IMPACT OF EDUCATION TOURISM ON UK’S ECONOMY at least £20,800 – or more in salary. Reapplication is only considered based on a higher Globally, increase in international migrants from 2.9% to 3.1% between 1990 and 2010; salary scale of £35,000. The Tier 4 Doctorate Extension Scheme (DES) introduced in and in Europe, from 6.9% to 9.5%; in what is termed ‘tourism’ aided the increase in April 2013 under the University sponsorship, provides Doctorate level students with a education tourists. By 2012, education tourism became UK’s fifth largest export in the 12-month work experience period after study leave. Tier 5 that is, Temporary Worker services industry, (“UK Immigration review ordered into ‘education tourism’”). Highly – Government Authorised Exchange; opened in 2008 under the sponsorship of an functional education tourism is a unit of “revenue, employment, output generator, organisation with a licensed scheme, is for short term migrants and recognises work export earner, and contributor to GDP, with additional knock-on effect.” Data revealed experience, training or research for 12 or 24 months depending on the scheme applied international students contributing a remarkable percentage of the 2011–2012 £73 to. It should be noted that, none of these visas can transit to another Tier.6 billion generated through education to macroeconomic activity and export earnings. In addition, nearly 20% of direct and indirect output and 18% jobs created, eased leanings Unfortunately, these visa regulations and government policy marred the attractiveness of 7. “International Students and Net Migration.” 5. The impact of universities…; See also, Supporting International Education in the UK. 8. Author in interviews with Benita Ben-Akinduro and Suzan Ben-Akinduro, students at the University of Salford 6. Supporting International Education in the UK. during their vacation in Nigeria at 6 Omololu Street Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria, July 18, 2016. 142 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 143 on public funding of universities. In 2014-15 HESA data on fresh international students students’ STEM preference in 2014–15, has encouraged the introduction of such studying in the UK showed 436,585. courses and formation of new universities. These in turn led to development of new

International (non-UK) students in UK HE in 2014-15 sites, infrastructure, policing and maintenance, region-specific characteristic goods and International student numbers by UK nation and English regions 2014-15 so on. Therefore, the 23 Alliance Universities established to commercialise education, are driving businesses, creating more jobs and adding more to GDP. Forming clusters, Country Total % of student international population these universities open up areas for investment and specialisation, turning around to students who are improve and increase urbanisation; serving as push-factor to status mobility. The growing international England 356,820 19% middle class, in turn has a spiral effect on increased demand for infrastructure, banking, Scotland 50,015 22% Wales 24,230 18% and health insurance. Overall, momentum is built for the UK’s finance and services Northern 5,525 10% Ireland industries. Increasingly, the ET as sources of income became a diversifier of dependence UK 436,585 19% on the public sector, as students finance teaching resource by £9,000. English HEIs alone

sprang from below £23 billion in 2010 – 2011 to increase to almost £24.3 billion in Source: HESA First Statistical Release 224 (2014-15) [^]Table 1a and Chart 4. 2012–2013. Consequently, the revenue resource generated from high tuition paid by Note that Total = full time, part time non-UK students internationals funded 30,000 additional places created for home students in 2014–2015 Unfortunately, education tourism was schemed in an attempt by UK’s immigration to academic session especially applicants to high cost STEM. HESA’s survey on HE business reduce net migration. A contradiction is set in the UK Government’s 2015 Autumn and community interaction revealed that universities in 2012–2013 earned £1.2 billion Statement, showing the intent to increase education exports from £18 billion in 2012 in business research contracts. Likewise, universities in consultancy and CPD extending to £30 billion in 2020. The reality is that the UK is crying abuse, but the international to courses on regeneration programmes and rental services gained another £1.5 billion; community is on track for expertise and quality education. Likewise, any abuse suffered, totalling £3.6 billion.10 is outweighed by the benefits from this industry. The pendulum for this part of the work

9 swings on the impact of ET on UK’s economy. Key to the sustainability of any economy is stability, offered by education tourism as it

Classical ET activities produce characteristic education tourists’ products that cause drives long term growth. HEIs are motivating powerhouses for socio-economic growth; 10. “International Student Statistics…”; See also, “Educational systems of the UK and the USA”; David Willetts, expansion and sustainable growth in the economy. For instance, 18.9% international “Contribution of UK universities to national and local economic growth,” gov.uk April 04 2014, https://www.gov.uk/ government/speeches/contribution-of-uk-universities-to-national-and-local-economic-growth; Chapter Two: “The 9. Mary M Kritz, “Why do students…”; See also, Chapter Two: “The UK must maximise openness to the global UK must…”; The impact of universities…; “Number of Nigerians studying in UK will nearly double by 2015.” ICEF economy to tackle the productivity challenge.” In Britain’s place in the global economy at the start of the 21st century, Monitor. Last modified April 2, 2012. http://monitor.icef.com/2012/04/number-of-nigerians-studying-in-uk-will- http://www.cbi.org.uk/global-future/05_chapter02.html. nearly-double-by-2015/. 144 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 145 it does not contract in recession unlike other sectors, nor susceptible to fluctuations and such as, Shrewsbury, Yeovil and East Anglia; opening the education advantage to the sharp declines. Higher education industry demonstrated effectiveness in generating GDP disadvantaged. The University of Worcester, a case in point, has succeeded in bringing the per capita. Analysis of the revenue base shows that universities remains the largest single community to its campus through weekends drama workshops and its public library— source of funding for public services, earned from private and international sources. the Hive. The Hive advantage in book loans has given to the disadvantaged soft skills. In 2011–2012, HE in UK contributed 2.8% in GDP of industry output, up from the Status change is effected in the calibre of jobs applied to and the impetus for literacy. 2.3% in 2007–08. This shows greater proportion of GDP from UK higher education The March 2014 Labour Force Survey, showed that employment rates for young people sector tending to promote macroeconomic stability. Moreover, it has measurable income with an undergraduate degree leapt from the second quarter of 2008. The statistics of compared with the core tourism sector. Also, full-time equivalent jobs created were more young people on job search with an undergraduate degree to those with A-level is 3:2 or than 750,000, at such a period of recession, or around 2.7% for 2011 UK employment. 60% to 50% respectively. The indication is that young people under age 20 in England’s’ Subsequently, HEIs became a vital part of the government’s long term economic plan disadvantaged areas apply more than previously. In addition, the Hive’s work clubs to build a more resilient economy and create jobs. By this, Britain introduced changes offer adult education and provides jobs. Subsequently, improved standard of living and through some programmes and tax system to help expand businesses and create jobs for growing middle-class with greater disposable income often lead to preference for and students, graduates and parents. Consequently, in 2014–2015 academic sessions, student increased investment in better education.12 placement was increased by 30,000, so that successful institutions can expand and grow Education in the UK equips graduates with international perspective helping diversity. further. Consequently, in 2015–2016, the cap on indigenous student enrolment was Studying in the UK is a link to a multicultural community of foreigners and the UK removed to accommodate about 60,000 applicants denied admission in every academic citizens. Higher education in the UK is a miniature of the global community, where year. This was towards the commitment to generate 2 million apprenticeships.11 total number of foreign students is almost 17%, and the academics and professors Education tourism helps in redefining the society accommodating large employment, constitute 25%. David Jobbins “New diversity index data…” recorded the University of social mobility and status change. Employment generated cuts across occupations and Westminister as the most diverse of UK universities, with 169 nationalities represented. range of skills—the highly skilled, the non-academic professionals, non-academic staff The nationality and cultural mix on campuses often yields diversity in universities’ and most time the outsourced auxiliary staff such as cleaners. The different categories student bodies, which collapse into the National Union of Students (NUS). Diversity is of employees help the attempt at ‘redistributing opportunity’ within the UK economy, on display particularly at SOAS where as many as 30 African languages could be heard considerably reducing social exclusion. For instance, literacy is penetrating suburbs 12. The impact of universities…; See also, Helen Lock, “Six ways higher education benefits the UK economy,” the 11. David Willetts, “Contribution of UK universities…”; See also, The impact of universities…; Hector Ceballos- Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/jul/09/six-ways-higher-education-benefits- Lascurain). the-uk-economy; Chapter Two; David Willetts. 146 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 147 VIABILITY OF EDUCATION TOURISM TO UK’S ECONOMY

Increasingly, the twenty-first century era of global cross-border flows in capital and labour has boosted education tourism. In 1975, the world had less than one million mobile tertiary students, whereas in 2016, it has grown to five million, with the prospect of rising to seven million by 2020. In 2011–2012, this growing international students market had the worth of nearly £10 billion. In this era, education export gained momentum in the UK as a stable economy; attracting over 500,000 students into primary, secondary and tertiary education, and over 580,000 students learning English, yearly. Estimation by OECD showed increase in the number of enrolled international students from 6-7% in tertiary enrolment, especially by 2012. HESA showed International students comprised David Jobbins: “New diversity index helps find multinational campuses” around 18% of those in higher education in the UK in 2013–14; were over 312,000 in 13 July 016 Issue No: 422 2014/15. However, Britain’s close door policy to migrant scholars, from 2012, dwindle in a moment. In the HESA Student Record of 2012/13, the five African countries with the pathway market importantly as Australia, Canada, and Germany have restructured the highest number of students enrolled on higher education programmes were: Nigeria through the PSW. It then appears a contradiction for Britain planning an increased – 17,395, Kenya – 2,175, Ghana – 1,980, Mauritius – 1,450, and Libya – 1,395. A return from the system that it abuses. This part concentrates on the viability of education further 1,395 came from Libya, 1,230 from South Africa, 1,220 from Egypt and 950 tourism to the UK’s economy.14 from Zimbabwe. In total, there were 34,160 African students representing 8% of all Education Tourism has become a way of life and a buoy to internal economy especially non-UK students (425,265) and 11% of all non-EU students (299,970). Cultural mix in the advanced economies. The global growth in mobile tertiary scholars climbed 4.3 is aided especially where there is scarcity of students’ own nationals as the case was in million in 2011–2012 from 1.3 in 1990. In 2016 the United States ET claims 1.2 2012/13, when 32 African countries sent fewer than 100 students to the UK. Adding million—almost the world’s number of ET in 1990. This progressive growth in number to diversity through ET is football loving students choosing the UK to experience first- is marked by the demand for top quality higher education, willingness to study abroad, hand the English Premier League.13 global and national competitiveness in the work environment, family affordability, 13. Helen Lock, “Six ways…”; See also, Chapter Two; David Willetts; “African students in the UK.” GoStudyUK. Last modified 2009.http://www.gostudyuk.com/life.jsp?id=LIFE_africa_general ; Jane Marshall, “International mobility population size, GDP per capita, urbanisation, inadequate supply in tertiary education of African students – Report Issue No:279.” University World News, July 6, 2013. http://www.universityworldnews. com/article.php?story= 20130705203103913; David Jobbins; “African students in the UK.” 14. Chapter Two; See also, Supporting international education; HESA; Mary M Kritz; The impact of universities. 148 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 149 to demand; demand from emerging economies and an expanding middle class in places research centres and high-tech companies in six countries developed MRI scanners. The like China, India and other Global South countries. To a large extent, affordability chain reaction is claimed to benefit the UK economy, boosts growth, creates direct and and the recognition of education, research and innovation are responsible for growing indirect job in different sectors; placing the UK as a global innovation powerhouse. It Outbound Mobility Ratios in both high and low-risk economies in Kenya, Nigeria, also provides irreplaceable networks and frameworks enabling UK researchers a genuine and South Korea. The internationalisation of ET is responsible for decision reversals on impact on society by pursuing breakthroughs, discoveries and inventions. Again, skilled PSW by Australia and Canada, while New Zealand introduced a multi-level study visa to migrants from UK’s education economy could rescue the country from increased global boost international students’ enrolment. The UK being an attractive destination receives competitiveness by developing new markets. For instance, the AVF Group in UK over 300,000 migrants yearly, with yearly increase at 90,000, and an estimated 800,000 employs based on language skills in French, Spanish and German, to access new markets migrants by 2021. Attempt to actualise this, led to the 13 satellite campuses set up in and opportunities. Languages, is part of the challenge to British business denying it 2016 by regional universities in London to attract high-paying foreign students. The from developing a new product mix in China and India. This clog could be removed intakes of these satellite campuses number over 8,000 in total, with each averaging 652 employing the hands trained within Britain.16 students, The intakes of these satellite campuses number over 8,000 in total, with each Education tourism aids securities in its primary capacity to develop. There is sustainable averaging 652 students.15 development in town planning for instance. New universities like Lincoln University Education migration is the foundation to the development of UK’s knowledge economy opened in 1996, revived the town and infrastructures such as its abandoned railway in research funding, vital research collaborations and skilled migrants. The UK universities land. Consequently, the greenhouse is encouraged in buildings, transport and business benefit from membership of the EU in terms of valuable academic collaborations, which schemes. The university has doubled the size of the local economy, and created 3,000 facilitated ground-breaking research and access to shared research facilities used to solve new jobs. Integration developed between schools and businesses to feed engineering global problems from cancer to climate change. Such funding includes the three multi- firms, creates synergy between schools, universities, industries, students and employers, million-pound project grants received by the University of Cambridge on vulnerability in a work and study palliative to student’s debt. Employment-for-enrolment became to breast and other cancers, the over €2 million received by the University of Essex and the criterion for admission at Warwick and Jaguar Land Rover; Sheffield University and seven partners across the EU to develop intelligent wheelchairs for the aging population. Rolls. The 12,240 collaborative research projects between universities and businesses; In addition, the University of Aberdeen and nine teams from different universities, including 368 in the arts and humanities; and 6,260 in engineering to the worth of over 15. Goodman, Paul. “The Advantages and Disadvantages of Tourism.” Soapboxie. Last modified October 3, 2016. https://soapboxie.com/economy/Advantages-and-disadvantages-of-tourism; See also, Mary M Kritz; Tim Ross, £3.5bn built UK’s global ranking. Such expansions promote job securities removing “Nicky Morgan orders immigration review to examine education tourism,” the Telegraph (UK), August 16 2016, http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11805477/ Nicky-Morgan-orders-immigration-review-to- examine-education-tourism.html; Supporting international education. 16. HESA; See also, Chapter Two; Helen Lock, “Six ways…” 150 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 151 seasonal income dependency for local economy in Salford-Manchester. ET’s openness expenditure. Interestingly, the University of Birmingham generated 2.2% of local wealth to movements of people, secures UK’s global role and benefits, especially when Europe at £530 million, an amount which was twice the total amount realised by the region’s would have only 26 per cent of the 35 per cent spaces of skilled workers needed by 2020. eight largest football clubs. Again, student cash supports 2.6% of GDP in Wales and There is direct economic benefit as nationals of first class economies, cross boundaries to 1.26% of GDP in Scotland.18 learn in the UK becoming net contributors to public finances. The Office for Budget has ET is a knock-on provider in business activities, wholesale and retail trade, and emphasised migrants’ importance to STEM skills projecting a fiscal drain of 181% by manufacturing. The Glasgow City Marketing Bureau stated that universities ‘conference 2060 where there is zero net migration. HEFCE projected deficit in the sector even with ambassador programmes’, and Visit Manchester, secured international conferences 5% shortfall in income from international students.17 that boomed in 2012-13. Further evidence gathered through Universities UK analysis on education trading, declared EU funding supporting 8,864 direct jobs, £836m in Education tourism is a self-developing and funding industry, earning national income economic output and a contribution of nearly £577m to GDP or 14.2%. In industries and contributing to the British economy. Aside from its generating significant levels outside the university sector, EU research funding to UK universities generated more of gross output and employment; a key measure of its contribution to the national than 10,190 full-time-equivalent jobs, output of £1.02 billion and a contribution of economy is to GDP. The GDP measures the net change in wealth or prosperity over nearly £503 million to GDP. Further, every generated 100 full-time jobs within the a year. It appears the UK government is not evaluating the Gross value added (GVA) system generated another 117 full-time-equivalent jobs in knock-on. Another 373,794 from ET before its immigration policy. As analysis, has shown, higher education gross full-time-equivalent jobs in other sectors depended on student expenditure. For every value added in 2011–12 to national GDP through direct and secondary effects; and £1 million of university output a further £1.35 million of output was generated in other off-campus expenditure of international students and visitors of £3.5 billion, add-up to sectors of the economy. This meant that an additional £37.63 billion of output was nearly £40 billion–equivalent to 2.8% of GDP in 2011. According to Universities UK generated outside the universities from student’s expenditure. New figures published on Report, ET’s £39.9bn or 2.8% turn over to GDP in 2011-12, is four times more than 10th of June 2016 by the EU showed research funding generated over 19,000 jobs for agriculture, which had 0.6%. A report equally commissioned by the National Union of local economy in 2011/12 or £1.86 billion for the UK economy and contributing £1 Students in 2013 revealed that students boost the economy with £80 billion through billion to GDP across the UK. By BIS calculation, the total value of education exports in 17. Chapter Two; See also, David Willetts; “What are the advantages and disadvantages of tourism.” reference.com. Accessed July 2, 2016. https://www.reference.com/world-view/advantages-disadvantages-tourism-cf69096d47d08e2b; 2011 was £17.5 billion; excluding off-campus expenditure of international students and Liam Byrne: “We need to put higher education…”; Are international students in the UK getting a raw deal? The Guardian, April 23 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/apr/23/are-international-students-getting- visitors. Significantly, conventional activity of universities is outweighed by its knock-on a-raw-deal; Kandiko Camille Howson, “Drop in foreign student numbers: are UK universities too complacent?”, the Guardian, April 04 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/apr/04/drop-oreign- student-numbers-uk-universities-too-complacent; Helen Lock; Supporting international education. 18. The impact of universities…; See also The Advantages and Disadvantages…; Helen Lock. 152 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 153 effects of jobs dependent on the Universities and the contribution made to Gross Value 2024. Unfortunately, Nigeria has foreign exchange dilemma that worsened since 2016.20 Added (GVA).19 Education tourism is an avenue to build lucrative market and soft power base. In 2012, Education tourism is viable to UK in its attempt to situate itself within a changing the ISC puts the contribution of international students in the independent school sector global economy. From early 21st century, Britain witnessed a decline in its share of to the UK economy at £890 million, equivalent to 22,700 jobs. Again, in 2012, a study trade with Europe and developed nations, which its June Brexit promises to aggravate. of international students in Sheffield by Oxford Economics stated the government Disruptions to ET are anticipated in “productive collaborations, the free movement of spending £27.2 million of £147.5 million paid by 8,222 international students giving a talent, the networks, collaborations, critical mass of research activity and funding”, despite net economic contribution of £120.3 million. The Coalition Government’s International assurances. For instance, the University of Cambridge would lose around £100 million a Education Strategy acknowledged boost to the local economy, enhancing cultural life, year. The coin of Britain is building trading links with emerging economies at the same and broadening the educational experience of the UK students.” A 2015 survey on time maximising trade with established markets as an independent actor. Britain would the impact of international students listed development of a global network between “sell off its strength in town planning, design, architecture and infrastructure.” Britain’s individuals. International students in the university sector also attract an additional strategy is maximising integration, in a system of bilateral ad hoc arrangements. The 160,000 student visitors. A more interconnected global economy and shared research UK’s arrangement is expectation on trade and investment linking China’s new markets activity has made international students integral to the material and intellectual property and investment. The UK also targets other members of the BRIC countries like India; of UK and its institutions. The presence of non-UK students keeps alive STEM courses, and the MINT countries— Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. This is to harness and are strong contributors to highly cited publications in the UK. UKip identifies the projected 55% global growth for growing economies from 2012–2015, and arrest its the high skill of immigrants from outside Europe as the brainpower in UK knowledge predicted low ranking to the BRICs, MINT and Russia by 2050. Again, Britain plans to base. Competitors are set to explore this soft skill through visa policies that emphasise offset any BREXIT upset with promising countries such as Nigeria. The British Council on transitions. Restrictive student visa policy since 2011 and prohibition of PSW in and HESA recorded Nigerians spending ₦246 billion in 2010 and a total of ₦1.5 trillion 20. Chapter Two; See also, Dayo Adesulu; Claire Shaw and Rebecca Ratcliffe, “Nigerian postgrads set to outnumber Indian students in UK universities,” the Guardian, October 07 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/ in 2012, projection is Nigeria providing 241,000 postgraduate international students by oct/07/-sp-nigerian-postgrads-set-to-outnumber-indian-students-in-uk-universities; The Independent (London). “Brexit result: What does it mean for the UK’s higher education sector and students?” June 24, 2016. http:// www.independent.co.uk/student/news/eu-referendum-result-brexit-leave-remain-higher-education-sector- students-a7100106.html; “Number of Nigerians studying in UK will nearly double by 2015.” ICEF Monitor. Last 19. The impact of universities…; See also, The economic impact of higher education institutions in England. London: modified April 2, 2012. http://monitor.icef.com/2012/04/number-of-nigerians-studying-in-uk-will-nearly-double- Universities UK, 2014. http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Pages/economic-impact-higher- by-2015/; The Premium Times (Nigeria). “Number of Nigerians studying in the UK triples.” 2013. http://www. education-institutions-in-england.aspx; Supporting international education; “How much value do international premiumtimesng.com/news/150542-number-nigerians-studying-uk-triples.html; International Students and Net students add to the UK economy?” Full Fact. August 31, 2012. https://fullfact.org/immigration/how-much-value-do- Migration; Clive Crook, “The Brexit question that nobody asked.” Bloomberg, August 21, 2016.https://www. international-students-add-uk-economy/; Peter Scott, “Immigrants, UK universities need you,” the Guardian (UK), bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-21/the-brexit-question-that-nobody-asked; Tunde Fatunde, “Forex ban hits November 04 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/04/uk-universities-need-immigrants; Are Nigerian students around the world.” University World News (UK), March 11, 2016, Issue No:404. http://www. international students…; Howson, Drop in foreign student... universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160311115230974. 154 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 155 2012 have hindered utilizing soft skills unlike in Australia, Canada and the USA. USA migrants from Eastern Europe. Apparently, internationalist-Britain cannot operate with continues leading the pack expanding provision for international STEM graduates to racism and xenophobia in the principle of globalisation especially with the aspiration work after study or apply-to-stay.21 of being the global hub to HE. Other assertions include: exploitation of the UK health and benefits system, and free education in state schools, job snatching by migrants, and Since 2011, student visa restriction has countered continual growth in ET ceiling post-study long term residency of 2.3 million EU migrants living in UK and 611,779 enrolment at 300,000, in comparison to Australia, Canada and the USA. Even the non-actives. Therefore, assess to the pull factors attracting EU migrants and international historical dominance in EFL and pathway programmes is being eroded by the rise of students were tightened around the NHS as non-EU migrants are charged 150% cost European English medium courses, with the global value at $825 million in 2015. The for treatment from April 6, 2015. Others are: reduction to 50% in PSW through Tier 2013 BIS study on international students recorded increasing loss from 2010, causing 2 (Skilled Migration), and the habitual residence test by which EU migrants claim a an increased tuition and the surrender of Tier 4 licences by institutions as the regulation right of residence and benefits. Amidst counter-allegations on abuse between Brussels became too costly. Programmes like the 1999 Prime Minister’s Initiative, its second phase and UK, and the facts that only 1% of international students have a permanent leave to in 2006 (PMI2) and the Dearing Committee’s recognition; suggest the UK government remain after study; the UK is worst off from the aftermath of its control measures. It is recognised the economic benefits of overseas students to its economy. But, Britain’s such that decrease threatens the viability of this sector.23 domestic policy made this fell flat on its face in 2012. The reasons for this are discussed in the last section of this work.22 National issues beset the viability of education tourism. First politicians to a large extent are accused of not applying research findings to come up with policies. Second, UK is THREATS TO VIABILITY behind in terms of investing in education R&D, third is the facts of aging researchers Overtime, the introduction of 2008 Point Based System (PBS) appears opening the UK and fourth is inability to recruit and retain teachers. Fifth is the gap in STEM skills in immigration system to abuses of bogus and illegal students, (International students and science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The next two are: frequent policy net migration). Aggravating this is the Mediterranean crisis where illegal immigrants changes such that closes university teacher training schools; and the increasing diver- from Europe and North Africa attempt to reach Britain’s shore from the Calais Camp. gence within the UK on how teachers are trained. In addition, the shadow of Brexit that Negatives associated with ET such as terrorism, culture-mix, ideological differences could casted on the campaign of equality revealed racism and xenophobia. Britain’s need of EU shroud its’ benefits. Britain, having simulated culture and the English Language into 23. Daniel Waldron and Sanwar Ali, “Brexit Supporter Slams ‘Unlimited’ UK Immigration of EU Migrants.” workpermit. com, June 23, 2016. http://www.educationuk.org/global/articles/uk-study-travel-tourism-hospitality-course/; See also, Tim Ross, “Nicky Morgan orders…”; Nicholas Watt, “David Cameron and Europe at odds over benefit tourism state building finds xenophobia natural against foreign languages and strange culture of issue,” the Guardian (UK) 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/15/david-cameron-europe-benefit- 21. “Educational systems of the UK…”; See also, Peter Scott, “Immigrants, UK universities…”; Supporting tourism’; International student statistics; “Soaring youth unemployment, no long-term jobs strategy – time for some international education. joined-up thinking Chancellor.” University Alliance UCAS (blog). n.d. Accessed July 5, 2016. http://www.unialliance. 22. Supporting international education; See also, The impact of universities. ac.uk/blog/tag/ucas/. 156 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 157 had diminished, as it did for the Commonwealth post-World War II. But, twenty-first but pushed to the zero game. Reducing the human capital at this time of global race century Britain, had acquired migrants as a legacy from its imperial past mostly from for “high-tech economy” would automatically deny the UK benefits of pioneering the South Asia and the Commonwealth countries; and from the Caribbean and the Indian pathways and baccalaureate; and being the benchmark for quality.25 subcontinent in the 1950s during its attempt at rebuilding. British stringent immigra- Politicisation of education, led to UK exploiting learners, and treating internationals as tion conditions against international students and Brexit hurts UK’s income and Euro- numbers for revenue; accounting for cancellation of internships, job placements, and pean research funding. Still, the obstruction from Ofsted’s value for compliance with bu- other opportunities. A positive balance is ignored where the UK system chose to evict reaucracy and paperwork dilutes effectiveness, and the Home Office designed rules and students after studying in the UK without any opportunity to practice the skills acquired guidance damage the system. The modern knowledge economy is endangered by decline within the system. The helplessness of international students are exploited and abused by in STEM dominated by international students, particularly at the postgraduate level.24 a system that operates the winner takes all principle. Britain is thus engaged in economic The argument is that blame-shift on abuse of the immigration policy is UK’s responsibility nationalism operating from the false tenets of mercantilism.26 Cameron’s Five-Point Plan since it can learn from the system of embarkation used by the United States and Australia. stimulating commitment to improving the competitiveness of the UK’s visa system through Britain has failed to make direct measures such as e-borders, survey evidence from the accessibility was defeated in the Immigration Rules of 2012.27 Apparently, the Tier 2 and International Passenger Survey (IPS) effective for record keeping. Again, the UK’s claim 5 cannot work where organisations complying with expulsion after graduation refrain of migrants taking all the jobs meant for citizens is debunked by the June statistics of from employing internationals. The misplaced preference given to prestigious universities the Association of Graduate Recruiters, which showed an 18% increase in graduate job is toppled by the 2012 higher education reforms and the entry of entrepreneurial profit opportunities. A 2016 leak from the Home Office asserts that only 1% of newly created providers of the 21 Alliance universities. It is shown from UCAS application figures for jobs are taken up by migrants. It is stated that there is no gainsaying the fact that non- 2010 that Alliance universities provide STEM skills vital for shaping the new economy; EU students studying in UK universities pay a discriminatory average of £12,000 on since its applicants are more. The complementary £185 million invested to support the STEM courses, and £30,000–35,000 tuition on such courses as Medicine susceptible to STEM delivery starting 2015/16 was sourced from internationals. Foreign education increase. This makes international students a higher net contributor to UK’s economy should be mutual benefit to scholars and host country but mercantilist-Britain is a short 24. Claire Shaw, “Education has never mattered more, so why won’t the UK invest in it properly?” the Guardian (UK), March 26, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/mar/26/education-has-never- 25. International Students and Net Migration; Are international students...; Howson, Drop in foreign student…; mattered-more-so-why-wont-the-uk-invest-in-it-properly; See also, Jenny Rohn “There is turmoil ahead, but UK Hassan Abdulwasiu, “Population of Nigerian students in UK trebles.” The Daily Trust (Lagos), November 28, 2013. scientists can weather the post-Brexit storm,” the Guardian (UK), https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams- https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/population-of-nigerian-students-in-uk-trebles/33283.html. corner/2016/jul/14/post-brexit-referendum-fallout-uk-scientists-weather-storm; Are international students…; 26. Laura LaHaye, “Mercantilism” (The Concise Encyclopedia Of Economics) accessed 04/07/2016, http://www. Howson, Drop in foreign student...; Supporting international education; “The British Empire was the largest empire econlib.org/library/Enc/Mercantilism.html; “Mercantilism,” accessed 04/07/2016. the world has ever seen,” accessed 02/05/2016, http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-greatest-empires-in-history- 27. Paul Colston, “Prime Minister Cameron announces 5-Point Plan for developing tourism in UK.” ConferenceNews (UK), 2011-9?op=1; John Darwin, “Britain, the Commonwealth and the End of Empire;” Last updated 03/03/2011, accessed July 17, 2015. http://www.conference-news.co.uk/2015/07/prime-minister-cameron-announces-5-point-plan-for- 02/07/2016http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/ endofempire_overview_ 01.shtml#top. developing-tourism-in-uk/. 158 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 159 Raven #3 Sue Matheson change to itself. The result is diversion in the global international market to new recruiters such as Spain, Russia, Korea, and Malaysia, Ghana and South Africa.28

CONCLUSION This study has thoroughly examined and established the macroeconomic sustainability of education tourism to Britain’s economy. Data and research materials used have elucidated the impact and viability of education tourism to the economy of the UK especially as a sustainable industry to the national economy and within a growing global market. In addition, threats to its contributions have been identified. Notwithstanding the advantages to studying in the UK, abuses in the system have dulled market potentialities in ET. The Home Office policy and politicising education tourism have adversely affected UK’s share in the international student market. Analyses have shown that any decline in number of these net migrants would cost the UK a fiscal drain. Clearly, UK’s global competitors in this stream are exploiting the negative policies of UK starting 2011/12 to attract the market. Therefore, a review and improvement of the Tier system and the entire education system is essential. Already, Britain has shot itself in the foot by Brexit which would reduce opportunities in terms of EU research support. In this stream of viability, the shield for Britain’s interest in its share of the global international student market remains colonial ties, a shared language, proximity and improved technologies. However, it is a foregone conclusion that international students would drift to countries of better opportunities, already attested to with the decline in 2014-16 enrolments.

28. Are international students...; See also, Howson, Drop in foreign student…; Mary M Kritz; Tim Ross; Helen Lock; Supporting international education; Aimee Oakley, “A closer look at African student mobility,” Posted 19/07/2013, accessed 16/07/2016; http://monitor.icef.com/2013/07/a-closer-look-at-african-student-mobility/; “UCAS,” accessed 05/07/2016,https://www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/getting-started/international-and-eu-students;Hector Ceballos-Lascurain; Peter Scott. 160 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 161 No food for hungry children Father and brother went to the mountain from To forage for food and wood Battle for Life: A Poetic Autobiography of Zhang Yawen Cultivated land to grow more food Mother and sisters worked hard to make their hut a home translated by No schools in the ravine for noble and literary kids Ying Kong, University College of the North, To parents I pleaded to send me to school Still treating me like a boy, father said Thompson, Manitoba “No school nearby, son.” As the men climbed the mountain to cut firewood and look for food I must be the literary girl Mother and sisters gazed at the mountains and longed for their world Father wanted us to be noble and literary To change his fate as a peasant The desire to get down from the mountains He lived off the land, face in the mud, back to the sky Impressed me and became inspiration Worked himself to death yet found himself penniless For my novel forty years later He went to town to gamble, hoping A Woman Crossing the River of Men For money to feed his family But how could I become a writer Debt collectors threatened to put him in jail With no education in the ravine Mother sold everything to pay them None of us went to school, but I cried “I want to go to school!” Moved to a wretched mountain ravine “Wretched child of this broken family Started a life worse than humble Adults here don’t even have food No villagers nearby, nor debt collectors to fear And you still want to go to a bloody school?” father scolded Only their ghosts around the hut “Didn’t you say nothing can be more deserving than reading?” Thatched with straw and stalks from corn and sorghum “Little brat, how dare you talk back to me?” 162 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 163 “I’ll go down the mountain to find a school.” I moved to another school “I’ll break your legs if you go alone.” That night I cried myself to sleep My second school stood at another mountain’s foot Dreamed of being at school, yelling and shouting Fifteen kilometers round trip I am at school!” To accompany me for the three-hour walk Father got me a dog Next morning while still asleep Each morning I trotted to school with the big dog Father woke me with an angry look And with him sauntered back home again “Get up!” Hence my nickname Dog Girl Mother asked me My body grew strong like an athlete “Don’t you want to go to school? Before I finished primary school In your dreams, you even yelled At the age of fifteen I was chosen by Jiamusi city ‘I’m at school’.” To join in an athletic team In the dark we left the hut I was trained as a speed skater My little legs catching up with his big strides And dreamed of becoming a master We walked through boundless grass But fate played a big joke on me Muddy land and mountain pass Injured in my early twenties Till a village house when the sun well above our head My dream melted away Wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket Retired from an athletic career A grass root belt around his waist A barefooted man came out to greet us As a bank clerk I was not content He would be my school teacher Went back to a night school prepared for university In the one classroom school But broke out the Great Cultural Revolution I studied hard for one year Since 1966 there was no school Because of big boys bullying From friends, I borrowed foreign literature books 164 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 165 Read Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Victor Hugo… My boss mocked me I read them under the covers of Mao’s books “How could a five grader become a great writer? Started writing journals and found An editor is good enough. I loved reading, and was good at writing Let go of the dream to be a writer.” In 1979 my city hosted a national hockey game I refused to listen, and went to an open university My husband, a hockey coach, encouraged me To get rid of the “pupil” label To write a short poem Persevere perspire prosper Eight Hundred Million Citizens Come to Fight for You And I would be a great writer I tasted the sweetness of publishing A creative writer at the cultural bureau “You will write when you are retired,” he said I swam with passions “Opportunity comes to those who pursue it,” I told myself I would despise evil, oppose ugliness I took a writing workshop, started writing my first novel Stood firm in righteousness, revealed injustices With only five years of education I published I reported blood bank corruption in a hospital The Splashes of Life And created a sensational hit At the age of thirty-five I gave in to my writing addiction Seeing the power of my report Soon found my knowledge too sparse The cultural bureau commissioned me to write Words too simple, vocabulary too poor A positive story about the city’s notorious mayor So I burrowed deeper into books Many were desperate to curry favor with the mayor I wrote poems, short stories, novels, and TV series But never had a chance; I refused In 1980 I exchanged my clerk job People laughed, called me an idiot For professional editing of manuscripts I laughed it off; Let me be an idiot! At home I wrote for my soul Addicted to writing my passions My vision widened, my heart opened I kept these basic principles Words gushed from my pen To write diligently To live cleanly

166 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 167 To resist flattery With the help of German general Alexander von Falkenhausen To rely on my ability I had been twice to Belgium, interviewed Qian Xiulin To cross whatever bridge came to my way The female Schindler of China I spent my time in labor camps and prisons I worked day and night, completed the TV drama series Interviewed inmates I found It was broadcast on CCTV Shocking stories behind their crimes But my name as a playwright disappeared Hidden inside their minds I fought to get my name back And uncovered social and family problems The legal case took me seven years Produced social food for thought As the playwright my name finally was there Looking at the despairing face My autobiography, Battle for Life, tells the whole story of my fight Of the nineteen-year-old man facing execution Based on that TV drama, I produced a novel with the same name I asked him, “Qin, what are you thinking?” Chinese President Xi Jinping presented my book He heaved a long sigh, To King Philippe of Belgium “What’s more to think about than to survive?” Battle for Life also won the Lu Xun Literature Prize From his innocent childhood to his criminal life I wrote a novella I grew up reading translated novels from the West How Beautiful It Is to Live One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Sound and the Fury Catch 22, The Third Wave… I went into the forest, wrote a report on a case of a person Now my books Battle for Life, Play Games with the Devil Lessons for the Future In jail for 17 years, wronged by an incorrect judicial verdict Translated into English and other languages While making noise about injustices dealt to others They are all published under the name of Zhang Yawen I launched a legal case for the copyright of my play A Chinese Woman at Gestapo Gunpoint A Chinese woman writer who fought for justices A true story of a Chinese-Belgian woman, Qian Xiuling Zhang Yawen, noble and literary my father wished me to be She saved more than a hundred Belgians from the Nazis I didn’t let him down and became a writer warrior. 168 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 169 Snowscape #2 Sue Matheson

A Study of the Dramaturgy of Fatalism in Lancelot Imasuen’s Invasion 1897

by Taiwo Okunola Afolabi, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia and Stephen Ogheneruro Okpadah, University of Ilorin, Nigeria

Introduction

African societies (especially traditional African societies) are characterized by beliefs in witchcraft, the mystical, spirit possession fatalism, and so on.These beliefs are located in various African cultures and traditions. These practices facilitate a bond between the material (physical) and the spiritual worlds; which, as Anigala (14) notes, “allows for a spiritual interaction between humans and the gods. It is also assumed that such interactions illuminate the being by lifting the individual to a new level of awareness and consciousness”. What binds the above concepts together is that they are all in the plane and realm of the spiritual. There are supernatural forces that are believed to control the affairs of man. These forces provide and sustain life in traditional African societies. They give life, protect it and ensure that man fulfils the purpose for which he was created. However, the spiritual does not exist alone, it takes the physical to carry out the biddings of the spiritual, hence the need for man to partner whether consciously or unconsciously 170 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 171 with the metaphysical. Fatalism is a relationship between the physical world and the do. this implies that implies that humans have no power to affect their futures, actions, spiritual and it involves either somebody or a group of people to stage a fatalistic and or choices; 2) an attitude of resignation in the face of some future event or events which mystic contest. The above beliefs are exemplified in African arts and creative industry, are thought to be inevitable and which those future events over which humans have no including Nollywood in which one finds films that are replete with witchcraft, fatality, control. clarifying the role of action and stipulates that although actions reflect free will, cultism and the mystical, cast in Nigerian home video industry. they inevitably work toward a preset outcome; and lastly 3) that acceptance of, rather than fighting against, the outcome is more appropriate or resisting the inevitable. African writers have shown how African belief in fatalism has played out. Such is the artistic rendition of the famous Benin invasion by the British empire in 1879. The Discourse on Fatalism in Nollywood invasion of the Benin Kingdom under the leadership of Oba Ovonronwem has been Perhaps, in the Nigerian literary corpus, no work of literature have been able documented and interpreted in play text by Ola Rotimi and Ahmed Yerima. Another to evaluate the concept of fatalism-destiny and to an extent, mysticism, asLate Prof effort to render of this history through the camera lens has been done by Lancelot Imasuen. Olawole Rotimi’s classic, The gods are not to blame.Odewale’s mystical contest is not This paper examines the dramaturgy of fatalism and mysticism in Nollywood home video only against man (such as King Adetusa), but it was also against the gods as he tries to films. It argues that Lancelot Imasuen’sInvasion 1897is apt in its crystallization of fatalistic evade his unwholesome destiny. In fact, his determination to avoid his destiny, leads to realities in the African context.In this study, the terminologies Fatalism and Destiny are his fulfilling it. Fatalism, a concept that contradicts the ideology of free will, posits that used interchangeably. there is no free will. All actions are rooted on a pre-ordained ground. Thus, Orangun in Conceptual Clarification his appropriation of the terminology, states that “the ultimate meaning and purpose of man can be sought from the power believed to control events. So long as man regards his Fatalism is a philosophical theory (doctrine) “that stresses the subjugation of all existence as a purposeful design, to which he must adapt himself, he cannot be enslaved events or actions to fate”. Fatalism emphasizes the idea that what will be will be, or that to the empirical view of the meaning of life” (4). human action has no influence on events.According to Blackburn (n.p), the concept of fate itself has multiple meanings and might be used to describe events that are arbitrary, Fatalism is a recurrent feature-theme in Nigerian home video films.In fact, the unavoidable, mysterious, or having a particular destiny.Fatalism includes the following dramatics of fatalism in Nollywood, is an offspring from the Nigerian theatre tradition. basic tenets: 1) the view that we are powerless to do anything other than what we actually The belief in predestination encased in the dramaturgy of playwrights such as Wole

172 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 173 Soyinka (Death and the King’s Horseman), Ola Rotimi (The gods are not to Blame), and the old man’s statement is a proverb. The boy fulfils his destiny by saving the life of his to a large extent, Zulu Sofola (Wedlock of the gods)watered the ground for a fabulous guardian’s granddaughter and marrying her. exploration of the subject of Fate in Nigerian home video films. Thus, Obilor (87) notes Moreover, in Amadioha (1999), Azuka, the nephew of a King becomes a king that “our indigenous film industry has been turned into a form of festival of demonology. when the uncle dies. Before now, he had been told to stick to some pictures, that would There is hardly any local film without a scene displaying the spirit world”. In other words, chart the couse of his destiny. In the same vein, Ernest Obi’s Idemili (2015) is rooted in there is a nexus between mysticism and fatalism. The two concepts are interwoven. fatalism, and Mmais destined to be the priestess of the Oshimili, so she can liberate the Consequently, Living in Bondage (1992) (the first Nollywood film) produced by Kenneth people of her community after executing some rituals. Her mother, grandmother, great- Nnebue is built around fate and the mystical. Andy, who seeks various means to become grandmother, and great-great grandmothers were the priestesses in their times, hence, rich, finally resorts to ritual. being a priestess is her destiny too. In course of seeking her roots, she confronts her Andy uses his wife, Merit, for money ritual. His action leads to numerous destiny. transcendental combats. He has to contest Merit’s wraith in a duel. The resultant effect of Synopsis of Invasion 1897 this mystical contest is Andy’s madness.Furthermore, the filmmaker utilizes the deus ex machina—a pastor with his team of prayer warriors pray for Andy, he confesses, and he is Invasion 1897 (2015), a film produced by Iceslides Films and Wells Entertainment, healed. In this context, there is also a challenge between the church and the spirit of Andy’s historicizes the 1897 defeat of the old Benin empire by the British Colonial Masters and self-inflicted madness. Other films in the repertoire of fatalism and the mystical, include the extradition of Oba Ovonramwen from Benin to Calabar. A Benin indigene who Andy Amenechi and Don Pedro Obaseki’sIgodo (1999), Fred Amata’s Ijele (1999),Zeb resides in Britain is accused of stealing some ancient Benin art works from the British Ejiro’s Amadioha (1999), and others. In Ijele (1999), the eponymous character had been Museum. In court, he narrates how the Benin empire was looted by the British. In the ordained by the gods to save the woman who facilitated his upbringing. One feature flashback scene, Oba Ovonramwen refuses the British entry into his kingdom because of fatalism, is that fatalistic situations take place in a near mystical condition. Ijele is it is forbidden for a stranger to enter Benin when it is in the middle of a festival. The birthed by his mother, in a shrine. An old man, who is a messenger of the gods and much British entourage which comprises of seven white men threatens to defy the king’s order later, Ijele’s guardian angel, puts the child in the care of an old woman. He tells her (the and they are killed by the Benin warriors, and some chiefs. The battle line is drawn as a old woman) that the boy would grow up to save her life and also marry her. However, full-scale war ensues between the Benin kingdom and the British Colonial masters. After

174 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 175 a war in which both sides lost immensely, the British Colonial masters defeat the Benin conspire to undo the peace that my ancestors promised me, then it is time to extract solution soldiers, and Oba Ovonranwen is deposed and exiled to Calabar. from the bosom of Ogiuwu.

Then, he orders Chief Obakhavbaye to summon Obo-iro for them. That night, Fatalism in Invasion 1897 with all the chiefs present in the palace, Obo-iro appears. His entry is mysterious. Only The dramaturgical nuance of Lancelot Imaseun’s Invasion 1897 is fully located in Ovonramwenis able to withstand Obo-iro’s mysterious appearance. With fatalism comes the belief in the fatalistic. This is not unusual, since an artist’s worldview greatly influences mysticism as Obi-iro appears to speak of the fate of the event ahead in parables. A contest his works of art. Lancelot Oduwa, Imasuen, an indigene of Edo state, would believe in of mysticism comes to play here as Ovonranwen commands him to show his face. fatalism, since Edo cultures believe in predestination and determinism. In this film, Oba Obo-iro: Idugbowa, son of Adolor, you have picked an irreversible destiny. OvonranwenNogbaisi, the son of Adolor is a godlike king (he is powerful and proud). Ovonranwen: Is that why my people are dying of mystery ailment? He is a king who has other kingdoms such as Akure,Urhobo, Itsekiri, and Ijaw subjected Obo-iro: Ogiuwu will do anything to unsettle whomever he chooses to. to his kingdom. His flaw-hubris leads to his tragic end. Predestination is paramount in the progression of the events in the film. While Ovonranwen is destined to fall like the Ovonranwen: The gods choose to be unkind to me, let them at least spare my people.

Greek Achilles, his chief, Obaseki, whom he also appoints as the intermediary between Obo-iro: The destiny of the king is intertwined with that of his people… You are about to his kingdom and the white colonial masters, is destined to betray him. For Ovonranwen’s pay the price of the fame you so seek. You are by your fall is going to be known in all the worlds destiny to be realized,there must to be a Judas. created by God.

Like Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello, Brutus in Julius Ceasar and Macbeth in Macbeth, Obaseki betrays his people-the Benin kingdom. To put an end to the numerous deaths in Benin, Ovonranwen placates the gods with sacrifices,-rituals that are “a means of communicating something of religious significance through word, symbol and action” (Mbiti, 126).Yet, despite the numerous sacrifices, death and tribulation refuse to evade

Benin. His perplexity is portrayed in the statement below: Fig. 1. Obo-iro communicating with Oba Ovonranwen.

Oba Ovonranwen: Haven’t we made enough sacrifices? When the earth, wind, fire, rain Obo-iro tells the king the irreversible nature of his destiny. The rise and fall of

176 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 177 Ovonranwen had been preordained by the gods. T Citing Gustav Frytag, Umukoro He fortifies himself with the venom of Akuobisi so that whoever he spits on will remain notes that “a man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his downfall” (53). invalid. Here, ‘spit’ is allegorical. Spit indicates his enemies. He further tells the priest to The fame Ovonranwen seeks comes to pass, along with his downfall. From this moment, bathe him with the mystic power of the gods. He shall be present, yet invisible. He shall Ovonranwen becomes a sailor in a boat being rocked by heavy wave. Like Shakespeare’s be dead, yet alive. He tells the gods to hide him from the evil that is planned against him. Hamlet who is confused as to what action to take about the assassination of his father, Ovonranwen knows that Galway’s aim is to eliminate him and have full access to his Ovonranwen becomes disorganized. He knows not what action to take, especially in kingdom. respect of the encroachment of the white man. This makes him place the responsibility of communing with the white man, in the hands of Obaseki, who turns out to be a trickster. The obstinate disposition of the Colonial masters, fuelled by the undying love of tradition and norms by the colonized, culminates in a full-scale war.

F.3 and 4. The priest bathes Ovonranwen with the mystic water of Okuobisi.

Oba Ovonranwenis, dependent on the mystical to curtail the peril of the British, nay, expects to emerge victorious over the British Empire. In so doing, he would also avert Obo-iro's prophecy about his downfall.

Fig. 2. The inhabitants in flight as Mr Galway and his soldiers invade Benin. Having failed in using his mystical prowess to win the war against the British and The crux of the matter is Oba Ovonranwen, who is aware of his destiny-imminent avert his destiny, like Odewale in Rotimi’sThe gods are not toblame, Oba Ovonranwen downfall, tries to avert it. After the numerous sacrifices to the gods, war ensues between tragically surrenders. He surrenders to the British and his destiny. Ovonranwen does not Benin and the British soldiers. In its genesis, Benin soldiers deal ruthlessly with Mr lay a blame of betrayal at Chief Obaseki, when he (Ovonranwen) meets him. Perhaps, Galway’s soldiers. However, the British soldiers later have the upper hand. Due to their he knows it is not Obaseki’s volition that led him to betray him—rather, it was his firepower, they easily slay Benin soldiers and invade Benin. Oba Ovonranwen resorts to (Ovonranwen) destiny that came to pass.His refusal to lay blame on Obaseki supports a mystical contest to curtail the menace of the Benin soldiers, and also avert his destiny. 178 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 179 the fatalistic tenet that man is powerless to do anything other what fate decides. As a Evbakhavbokun: I saw your chiefs. Your chiefs were screaming, and you just stood there helpless entity, man is subjected to forces that surround him. These forces control him father, unmoved as the fire advanced towards you. and dictate his life and living. Indeed, man is a pencil in the hands of these transcendental Symbolic, fire indicates danger. Ovonranwen’s belief in fatalism and attempt at forces. outdoing it, sets the pace for mysticism in the film. Like Oedipus in Sophocles’ King From the beginning of the film, the concept of fatalism is carefully set. Ovonranwen’s Oedipus and Odewale in Ola Rotimi’sThe gods are not to Blame, Oba Ovonranwen destiny comes to his children, princess Evbakhavbokun and his first son, the prince, in a fittingly ends in exile . As Julius Ceasar Scaliger, cited in Dukore (140), states “all great dream. In African cosmology, it is believed that dreams forewarn a man of his impending tragedies end in deaths and exile”. Ovonranwen, exiled to Calabar by the British, died doom. A revelation, such a dream is a state in which the future intersects with the present. on January 1914. The downfall of the royal, dynamic and proud Oba Ovonranwen, The film therefore begins with the prince in a dream state. In the dream, the decision of undoubtedly elicits compassion in the minds of the spectators and incites compassion his father to execute two men, who are probably traitors, incurs the wrath of the British and fright in the soul of its audience. “Fright and compassion are the two objectives imperialists, and war follows between Benin and the British soldier. Of course, Benin is of tragedy” (Castelvetro, 144). Because the plot of the film revolves around the tragic- greatly plundered. The Prince is devastated with the nightmare. He needs no interpreter hero, Ovonranwen, one would think that the filmmaker should have been titled his film, to tell him the meaning of the dream. Consequently, he forces his way into the palace, Ovonranwen, following the examples set by Ahmed Yerima’sThe Trials of Oba Ovonranwen uninvited. He tells chief Okhavbiogbe: and Ola Rotimi’s Ovonranwen Nogbaisi. After all, the plot of the film, which revolves around the hero,to a large extent, subscribes to Aristotle canon of tragedy. Prince: I must see my father. Okhavbiogbe, it is life and death and the gods bids us to choose one. The plot of [tragedy and the epic] must contain action which is not only human but also magnificent and royal. And if it is to contain action by a The Prince's faith in the implication of dreams, leads him into confiding in his father member of the royalty, if follows that the plot must contain action which and his chiefs. Then, in the wake of the incessant deaths in Benin, Evbakhavbokun’shas definitely occurred and which involves a king who has lived and who is a dream, which she tells her father: known to have lived (Castelvetro, 146). Evbakhavbokun: A message came upon me in the dream. Tragic heroes do not reverse their decisions. In Ola Rotimi’s Kurunmi, the Ovonranwen: A dream?

180 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 181 eponymous hero refuses to back track on his decision to go to war. This is also evident the audience(John Gassner Cited in Charles and Patrick, 42). Anagnorises is also known in Wale Ogunyemi’splay Ijiaye, in which the tragic hero, Kurunmialso refuses to go back as enlightenment.Ovonranwen recognizes his mistake in trusting Obaseki, who stabs on his words. In Zulu Sofola’sWedlock of the gods, perchance, Uloko and Ogwuoma are him in the back. destined to be husband and wife. Hence, despite the accusations leveled against them The king also realizes that pride contributed to his downfall. The downfall of tragic about the death of Adigwe, Ogwuoma’s husband, they still go ahead to let the world know heroes, especially those with blue blood, is caused by a flaw or weakness. This weakness is that they are in a marital relationship, which leads to their tragic end. King Odewale in pride (hubris). Tragic characters/figures such asKurunmi, Oedipus, Odewale,Pentheus and Ola Rotimi’sThe gods are not to Blame, refuses to go back on his decree that the murderer so on, come to their tragic end due to hubris inherent in them. Therefore, the downfall of of king Adetusa be unveiled and dealt with. He realizes that the murderer he seeks, was most tragic heroes/figures occur through the agesis caused by pride.Ovonranwen accepts himself. Nevertheless, he does not reverse his decree. The concept of tragic irreversibility, defeat. However, in defeat, he warns the white man of the implications of his action: which is inherent in the Greek tragic canon, is prominent in Invasion 1897. As a tragic Ovonranwen: The ditch that swallows the elephant will have no room for another animal. hero/figure, Ovonranwen refuses to make peace with Mr. Galway. He sees such an action Moor, you have bitter the sweet bitter bile of fame and power. But remember, none last, nor as cowardice. will your life. Ovonranwen will not bow to the white man. Herein lie the concepts of peripeteia As the African traditions which contextualize this discourse reveal, there is a distinct and anagnorises, as situated in the poetics of Aristotle: pattern in fatalistic dramas. Such a drama begins with a mystical revelation through dream,

[peripeteia] is a change by which the action veers round to the opposite, prophecy, etc. Invasion 1879 followed this pattern through the inclusion of dreams and subject always to our rule of probability or necessity. While recognition the appearance of Obo-Iro. The essence of the revelations about future incident serve to (anagnorises), as the name indicates, is a change from ignorance to knowledge, fore-warn and perhaps suggest the inevitable, promoting the view that a human being, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good powerless when dealing with the divine, is unable to do anything other than what he is or bad fortune (Aristotle, 40). destined. Also, an attitude of resignation in the face of events which are thought to be inevitable and over which humans beings have no control becomes evident, for although Anagnorises is the stage in a tragedy when the tragic hero recognizes his error. “It is actions reflect free will, they inevitably work toward a preset outcome. Even a human the primal limit when the character achieves an awareness that is equally transferred to being takes actionsand makes decisions out of his own volition, he is enacting a divinely 182 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 183 written script. Thus, the decisions of Oba Ovonranwen to disengage from the British also it is an evidence of Ovonranwen's possession by the gods. T Empire, to appoint Obasekias as his liaison officer, to defend the intrusion of the British In African societies, the heroic deeds of kings and notable figures are sung bypraise Empire only contribute to the inevitable fulfilment of the prophecy. Oba Ovonranwen’s singers. This has been often utilized in modern African plays and films. Praise singing is actions and inactions, decisions and choices, and those of his chiefs, the kingdom finally imperative in the fulfillment of fate. For instance, In Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s fall to the invasion. As in Ola Rotimi’sthe gods are not to blame, Odewale’s decree only Horseman, the market women, led by Iyaloja sing the praise of Elesin Oba. For the destiny heralded the imminent fulfilment of the prophecy. Hence, Ovonranwen's acceptance of, of the latter to be fulfilled, this praise sung for and about him, elevating or transporting rather than fighting against, the outcome is more appropriate than resisting the inevitable. him into another, metaphysical plane of existence, and thereby, making him see the

An Appraisal of Filmic Aesthetics in Invasion 1897 reasons for his dying (as a ritual scapegoat) which liberates his people from the shackles of the unknown. The effective use of this traditional element in a number of African Invasion 1897. Various performance/filmic aesthetics come to play in The plays encouraged its use in Nollywood home videos. Nollywood films, have, from the performance/dramatic elements in the film areculturally engraved, as they reflect the genre's inception, properly utilized this African aesthetic. All the chiefs sing the praise culture, traditions and beliefs of the Benin people. The indices of dramatic elements of Oba Ovonranwen. In fact, all and sundry, including all the chiefs, sing his praises, dances songs music proverbial communication, narration include , and , and the or the whenever they make any suggestion. This singing of his praises makes Oba Ovonranwen’s storytelling technique . All of these constitute the total theatre projected by the filmic head swell. It brings about his own consciousness of his strength, ego ,and valour. These elements for the total filmic experience. These filmic elementsare every element that songs also historicize artifacts of traditional Benin society, since art works are the core of constitute a scene in a movie, the film narrative, cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, the conflict between the British colonial masters and the Oba Ovonranwen-led Benin. and editing. Thus, Invasion 1897 straddles the legendary and the historical. Praise singing reveals

First, dances serve various functions in this film. While most of the dances in Oba Ovonranwenis as a legend-god while the events in Benin that revolve around him the films are secular, there are a few ritual dances. In the scene of Evbakhavbokun’s portrays history.

(Ovonranwen’s daughter)marriage to Chief Ologbose, various dances are displayed.In In African culture. many playwrights use songs in their works, because song plays a the domain of the sacred, Oba Ovonranwen does a ritual dance when he is being bathed major role in creating a bond between the metaphysical and the physical worlds. Song is a with the mystic water of Okuobisi. This is to accentuate the efficacy of the charm, and core element in the transition process from the corporeal into the supernatural world. In

184 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 185 films like Idemili(2015), mystical songs form the nucleus in the invitation of the goddess, will your life. Oshimili—suggesting the language spiritual beings understand is the language of song. At his deposition to Calabar, Ovonranwen is metaphorically the elephant. In other In fact, Aristotle's appraisal of song as an important element of the tragic art, states words, having been deposed, there will be no other deposition of a future Benin king. He that “of the remaining elements, song holds the chief place among the embellishments” also warns the white man that no man lasts forever. (37). To this end, songs play a major role in accentuating the tragic mood of Invasion 1897. The cathartic effect of this film is achieved via the use of songs. Witnessing Oba Questions beyond the work Ovonranwen’s journey to Calabar, one of his subjects raises a song (a dirge) on the demise The historical incident that formed the basis of Imasuen’s Invasion 1879 has a long of Oba Ovonranwen and other subjects follow suit. Touched by the song, he looks back history in the creative arena in Nigeria. Following ObaroIkime’s version of the history, and shakes his head in agony as he is led to the Ship by Mr Galway’s men. under the caption: “The Western Niger Delta and the Hinterland in the 19th Century” As well, the filmmaker’s use of language as a tool to fully elicit the emotion of his (262), the picture of an erstwhile powerful, peaceful and prosperous Benin, was that audience and also fully characterize Oba Ovonranwen is noteworthy. Since “a tragedy of a troubled kingdom during the first half of 19th century. First engaged by one of is the imitation of the adversity of a distinguished man” (Scaliger, 140), distinguished the first-generation renowned playwrights, Ola Rotimi’s creative rendition of history in men speak metrical language. In the Nigerian and African context, metrical language is Ovonranwen Nogbaisi (1974) simply luxuriates the grandeur of Oba Ovonranwenin's exemplified in parable, proverbs and so on. Oba Ovonranwen speaks in proverbs, in the office. Although he is a custodian of culture who inspires people, he does not actively course of his communication with the gods and his subjects. Some of his proverbs are participate in their struggles.Then, question of staying faithful to the authenticity of depicted below: history beccame imperative in the works of playwrights like Ola Rotimi and Ahmed

Ovonranwen: When the earth, wind, rain, fire conspire to undo the peace that my ancestors Yerima, whose plays diverged from one another in many respects. One of the criticisms promised me. Then it is time to extract solution from the bosom of Ogiuwu. levelled against Ola Rotimi’s work that it favoured the Western version of the invasion led to the recommissioning of Ahmed Yerima to re-interpret the incident from the Ovonranwen: The smoke reveals the fire in the name of all the gods in the kingdom. perspective of the Benin people rather than the Western one or that of a company like Ovonranwen: The ditch that swallows the elephant will have no room for another animal. Shell which is interested in perpetuating Western ideas. Moor, you have bitter the sweet bitter bile of fame and power. But remember, none last, nor Consequently, when viewing Invasion 1879 one must ask what is the director’s 186 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 187 interpretation of the historical content? How did the director treat the story? Apart from Works Cited the fatalistic and tragic hermeneutic lens through which the film has been examined, Aristotle. Poetics. In: Bernard Dukore (Ed.). Dramatic theory and criticism: Greeks one must also consider whether the director remained faithful to the authenticity of the to Grotowski. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1974. history. Agha, Charles, Agha, Patrick. The Aristotelian foundation of western theories of Conclusion drama. In: Solomon Ejeke (Ed.). Theatre Business. Abraka: Delta State University Press. 2014. Ovonranwen is a legend in the history of Benin. He is the most celebrated king in Benin historiography. It is no wonder that his name continues to reoccur in Nigerian Areo, Oluyare. The aesthetic and dramaturgical of masquerade performance of art, that several plays, novels, poems, sculptures, paintings, music and films have been Edi festival. In: D. Oni & S. Ododo (Eds.), Technical theatre and performance constructed about him, and that he has been a subject of discourse in Nigerian popular arts in Nigeria: Celebrating Olateju Wasee Kareem. (pp.54-68). Lagos: culture. To a large extent, the tragedy of Oba Ovonranwen is cast in the African and Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization. 2011.

Aristotlean doctrines of tragedy. The dramaturgy of fatalism in Lancelot Imasuen’s Invasion Balistreri, C. The traditional elements of the Alarinjo theatre in Wole 1897 contains a discourse on the belief system that holds sway in African societies. From Soyinka’s plays. An Unpublished Ph.D thesis presented to the Department the foregoing, we therefore recommend a continuous exploration of traditional beliefs by of Theatre Arts, University of Colorado 1978. Nigerian cum African filmmakers. Blackburn, S.Oxford dictionary of philosophy, (3rd edition). , Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2016.

Castelvetro, Lodovico. On Aristotle’s poetics. In: Bernard Dukore (Ed.). Dramatic theory and criticism: Greeks to Grotowski. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1974.

Imasuen, Lancelot. Invasion 1897: The deposition of the last African king. Mike Omoregbee, Paul Obazele, Eliel Otoje, Segun Arinze. Iceslides Films. 2015.

188 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 189 Mbiti, John. Introduction to African Religion. Nairobi: Heinemann Educational Books. 1978. PAGE 129 Orangun, A. Destiny: The unmanifested being. A critical exposition. Ibadan: African

Odyssey Publisher. 1998. I wondered if he had known the copy of the book he’d sent, dedicated and signed, was

Obilor, Ifeanyi. The phenomenon of witchcraft belief and practices. Journal of the damaged. Several pages were creased from the printing process, others had bled ink onto the poems opposite. I was still glad to have it, to be able to read the series as a whole. humanities. University of Owerri. Vol 1. No. 111. 87-99. 2000. Reading it in the bath, I managed to wrinkle the book’s edges in the steam and start to Scaliger, Julius. Poetics. In: Bernard Dukore (Ed.). Dramatic theory and criticism: delaminate the cover. Later, I found a bloodstain from my cut finger on page 129. Greeks to Grotowski. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1974. The book draws on other texts, juxtaposed images, stories and ideas alluding to elsewhere: Umukoro, Oghenevize. The tragic hero and tragic figure divide: the reader leaves the written text and thinks herself away, puzzling over the tesserae A dialectical view of Aristotle's canons of tragedy. offered to her. Is it possible to make or intuit a whole or must it always be perceived as In Solomon Ejeke (Ed.) Theatre Business. Abraka: Delta State University., [no date]. fragments and disparate ideas which appear to move towards but never achieve cohesion?

It is a cold night, the heating has turned itself on, the cat is asleep on the end of the bed. A friend did not email me for several weeks, so concerned was he by the word ‘theology’ in the title of a poem I dedicated to him. He asked me to remove his name and then ceased communication. Recently we resumed our correspondence. ‘What is grace?’ he asked, and we threw around ideas of states of being, acceptance, living in the moment, being gifted faith.

We might call theology philosophy he suggested, and I concurred. We should not assume theology is to do with organized religion or dogma, I wrote, it may be ontological, social or political (small p). Like everything, it changes and evolves. We touched upon that, also, how to square evolution and belief, science and faith, society and aspiration, 190 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 191 A Road Not Taken Sue Matheson writing, art and teaching.

The poems, or letters as the book title suggests, are full of momentary narratives, paraphrase, events observed and enacted. Each has equal weight, each is as carefully constructed and evoked. Themes are written around, a poetry of absence, a theology of absence, that unnerving concept of inversion and the negative, describing what cannot be known by engaging with what it is not.

Skeins of blue and soft black marks. A distant conversation underneath the village streetlight, an owl’s call in the garden. Precious words on cheap paper, documenting the holy and unknown.

And now he is in love and has left the city behind.

—Rupert M. Loydell

192 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 193 Aboriginal Centre which was located on the ground floor. At the Centre, both faculty members realized that they were too early. Apart from the three regular staff that run the Sweating in two Worlds place, they were the only ones there. Ayo glanced at his wristwatch; it was five minutes to 1. “I think we are a bit too early,” he noted to Xia directly. by Joseph D. Atoyebi Cheryl, one of the three female staff at the Centre suddenly chipped in a question University College of the North, The Pas Campus directed at the two guests. “Are you here for the sweat?” She smiled warmly, as she switched her gaze between the two expecting the obvious response in the affirmative.

It was a sunny winter afternoon in February. As ironic as that may sound, sunny afternoons “Yes,” answered Xia. in winter are a common feature in Northern Manitoba. In the city of Thompson, the The two friends seemed to have an unwritten code between them, namely, that Xia winter months are characterized by several inches of blanketing snow. On that particular should be the first to respond to any question directed at them. Their friendship and afternoon, the temperature was twenty under with an attendant wind chill. As expected collegiality have been going on for three years now. It started the very first week when in that time of the year, in spite of the clear sunny sky outside, there was so much snow Ayo was hired as an instructor in the Department of English. Xia is the older of the two. that could be knee-deep if one made an error in judgment by straying off the ploughed Both friends were first generation Canadian from two culturally sensitive backgrounds. path. An announcement had gone out about a week earlier notifying the University Ayo, being of African descent, related with Xia as his African culture dictated, that is, community of an upcoming sweat ceremony under the auspices of the University’s elders always get to speak first. Aboriginal Centre. “I guess we should try and make ourselves comfortable while we wait,” Xia advised, As a faculty member and one of African descent, Ayo, together with Xia, his colleague directing her statement to Ayo, but still loud enough for Cheryl to hear her. who was both faculty member and of Chinese ancestry decided that they would participate “Absolutely!” Cheryl quipped, gesturing with two thumbs up. “As you can see, we in the ceremony. It was going to be their first. All prospecting sweaters had been advised also have a kitchen area here at the Centre. There is coffee, as well as tea. There are also to converge on the Aboriginal Centre at 1 pm on the sweat day. At about ten minutes to soda drinks in the fridge. Please help yourselves to any of our offerings.” The phone on the hour, Ayo and Xia both made their way to the Centre. It was barely a three-minute her desk started to ring. She excused herself and went to answer the phone. walk from their offices on the third floor of the four-storied university building to the 194 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 195 Xia turned to go to the kitchen area. “Do you care for coffee?” she asked Ayo, even but appreciable point. It was an indication that both friends would soon be holding though she knew that he never drank coffee. She only asked out of tradition. steamy tea mugs in their hands.

“No! I would rather have tea.” Ayo momentarily joined Xia at the kitchen counter. Xia turned around to open a top shelf which revealed an assemblage of tea mugs of different shapes, sizes, and colours. She selected one and stepped out of the way for Xia was already filling up an electric kettle from a faucet. She had the kettle going. Ayo to make his choice. They also found different boxes of assorted tea, but both friends They both turned around to observe the goings-on in the well-furnished center. settled for a bag each of an orange-flavoured tea. When their tea was ready, they picked Cheryl and her colleagues at the Centre were going around their duties. The main door up their mugs by the handle and turned around to resume their former posture. which led into the Centre was shut, but it appeared to be anxiously expecting a flood of “I suggest we make ourselves comfortable in one those beautiful seats,” Xia advised. visitors. “I agree. At least, we will be able to place our mugs on the coffee table in the centre.” Ayo glanced at the Quartz wall clock; it indicated three minutes past one. “Have you ever heard the expression, “African time”?” He asked Xia with a very soft voice, only They found a comfortable two-seater and proceeded to place their mugs on the a couple of decibels above a whisper. coffee table before them.

“No,” answered Xia, “what does that mean?” “If an event, a meeting, or an appointment was scheduled to begin at 2 pm, but it didn’t happen until about 3 pm, or even much later, that is the African time syndrome.” The electric kettle was beginning to force itself into the relative quietness at the Ayo picked up his mug to take a sip but immediately changed his mind for fear of Centre as there was an apparent change in the condition of the water within it. The scalding his tongue. “I think it will be correct to philosophize by saying that the African intrusive noise made by the kettle was a welcome development after all because it meant time phenomenon relates to the way we Africans view ourselves in relation to time as that Ayo could go ahead and explain the meaning of African time to Xia without the fear a concept.” He picked up his cup again, but this time, he tried to force the hot tea to of providing an unsolicited lecture to a perceived uninterested audience. cool off by blowing it with his mouth. He finally managed to get a tiny sip. The taste of “It is difficult to arrive at a concise definition of African time, but I can explain it the orange flavour on his tongue and the warmth of the tea were very satisfying. “Time using an example.” lives for us; we don’t live for time. Hence, we have a leisurely attitude to life, which some The sound that was coming from the kettle has now increased to a rather imposing people misconstrue as being nonchalant.”

196 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 197 “Interesting. But how about the idiom time is money which I read about in the works world without any care for punctuality.” Xia surmised. of some African writers? I know that the expression cannot be credited to a particular Both friends silently sipped at their apparent lukewarm tea while they observed culture as it has a universal application, but how does the les affair attitude by your the now boisterous activities going on in the Centre. It was beginning to appear as average African relates to the expression?” Xia asked without a trace of sarcasm in her though they would soon be heading out to the sweat lodge. Their observation was spot tone. on because they didn’t have long to wait. At thirty-three minutes past the hour, one of “Of course, time is money! In the Nigerian Pidgin, it is rendered as time na money. the facilitators at the Centre notified them that it was time to go. The meaning of the expression has a place in my culture. In fact, the Yoruba people have The lodge was situated about four hundred meters away from the University’s main a similar idiom, namely, àárò l’ojó or òwúrò l’ojó, equivalent to the English idiom building. It laid on the northern fringes of the expanse of land that formed part of the “bright and early.” That notwithstanding, they still reject the absolute clock-bound way sports field. On stepping out of the warmth which the Aboriginal Centre offered, the of life of Western civilization.” Ayo concluded. sweaters were immediately greeted by a gust of chilly wind, an unpleasant reminder that it The minute hand of the wall clock has moved to twenty-five minutes past the hour. was still winter. The two faculties, together with two males and four females, comprising Two more sweaters had come into the Centre while Ayo was engrossed in his lecture of students and non-faculty staff, gingerly made their way towards the sweat lodge. The about “time.” sun casts its radiance on the immaculate snow. Save for the chilly wind and the sleepy winter trees in the far background, one may as well pretend that one was walking among “So, can we now claim that there is Aboriginal time? Because I suspect that is what heavenly plains. The small entourage soon arrived at the lodge. you are trying to get at,” Xia pointed out with a smile as she observed two more sweaters walk in through the main door. Before entering the secluded building which also housed the sweat dome, Ayo observed an open fire which was being used to heat up some rocks of different sizes. The “I would like to say so, Xia.” I have been here these past five years, long enough to significance of heating rocks in an open fire was completely lost to him. He wasn’t certain conclude that like my African kin, my Aboriginal hosts also have a relaxed approach to if Xia knew better. Anyway, his ignorance was only in the interim as he soon learned that life. Perhaps, Time should serve humans, and not the other way round. We mustn’t be the rocks were called grandfathers, one of the most important items in any Aboriginal slaves of time.” sweat ceremony. “I don’t know whether to agree with your or not, but I fear the consequences of a

198 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 199 The eight individuals were welcomed into the lodge by Martin, a middle-aged man facing east. Situated between both groups is the sweat dome. The dome sat at the very who was also in charge of making sure everything was up-and-running in the lodge. They centre of the lodge. It was about 6 foot high at its pinnacle. The dome structure, save were also greeted by Agartha, a petite lady in her late sixties who was an elder and the lead for an open entrance facing south, was completely covered with several layers of canvass celebrant at the ceremony. Finally, there was Kristen, Agartha’s protégé. materials. The support frame of the dome structure was made of willow sticks. According to Martin, a new dome for the sweat lodge is constructed ones a year. The old one is Ayo thought of Martin as Elder Agartha’s Man-Friday because he was efficient, taken down, and a new one is constructed in its place. knowledgeable, strong, and tough-skinned. His tough-skinned description of Martin was because while everyone else was sitting on wooden benches within the confines Kristen, Elder Agartha’s protégé was dutifully preparing a smudge all the while on of the well-heat lodge, Martin was going out at intervals to check on the grandfathers her knees. The smoky emblem was an herbal mix made from sweet grass. The aroma before coming back into the lodge. Even though he had a very thin piece of clothing on from the incense-like smoke protruding from the small wooden bowl pervaded the lodge. his back, he seemed unperturbed by the chill outside. Ayo thought that the aroma was calming. He later discovered the importance of the smudge to the ceremony; it was used for the purpose of purification. In fact, every utensil During one of the intervals between going out to check on the heating rocks and and item used for the event had to first pass through, or run over the smudge. Martin staying to chat with others in the lodge, Martin lectured the sweat participants on some momentarily picked up the small smoky bowl and crawled into the dome to smudge of the characteristics of the lodge. He talked about the spiritual significance of the dome. it. He soon emerged from the dome with the bowl. He handed it back to Kristen who He informed them that constructing a sweat dome is a spiritual exercise. “It is very sacred.” resumed fanning the ember. While listening to Martin’s lecture and waiting for the commencement of the Shortly afterward, Martin started bringing in the grandfathers from the fire outside. ceremony, Ayo carefully observed the interior of the lodge from his corner. There were As he brought in each rock or rocks, depending on the number he was able to collect two makeshift changing rooms in the northern end of the lodge, one for both sexes. The at a time with his spading fork, he first made sure to run the fork with the rocks in changing rooms have canvass contains like those used in hospitals to provide patients place over the smudge before taking them into the dome. Then he gently deposited the some privacy. The privacy curtains can slide across a silver-coated rod to whatever rocks into a shallow circular pit in the center of the dome. Martin continued the back direction the user needs them to go. Each changing room is proximal to the sitting area and forth journey: collecting rock or rocks, running the spading fork over the smudge, assigned to the respective sexes. The male group sat with their backs to the east while then depositing the rocks in the pit. At a certain point during Martin’s back-and-forth facing west. The female group, on the other hand, sat with their backs to the west and 200 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 201 trips, the elder and her assistant crawled into the dome headfirst to closely supervise the of an elder to Ayo’s inquiry, these four elements are not deified, rather, they are seen as growing population of the grandfathers. agents of the one God - the creator. However, they give thanks to each of these elements for their faithfulness through the ages. Participants waiting on the sidelines could hear Elder Agartha instructing Martin to get more grandfathers as their number was insufficient. Martin picked up his pace. Soon The significance of the number four was also evident during the sweat. First, the afterward, he received the temporary all-good signal. It was intended to be a reprieve ceremonial pipe was passed around four times. The sweat ceremony also had four rounds. because, as Ayo later found out, after the first round of sweat, some more grandfathers The dipping of the evergreen branch into the bucket of water and the splashing of the were added to the rock collection. There were twenty grandfathers at the start of the first collected water on hot rocks to generate sizzling steam for the sweat was done four times. round of sweat. More rocks were added in subsequent rounds. At the start of the fourth Also, there are usually four different medicinal ingredients in the water used for the and final round of sweat, there were thirty-two rocks in total. sweat. The choice of the four ingredients varies according to the purpose of the particular ceremony. The following four ingredients were added to the water used in the sweat “What’s in a number?” The Aboriginal culture as Ayo later realized is one that is ceremony in which Ayo and Xia were participants: wild mint, cedar, sage, and tobacco. strong on numerology, the belief in the existence of a mystical relationship between a It is important to mention that all ingredients used in a sweat ceremony according to the number or group of numbers, and coinciding events. By the way, what culture is not? For Aboriginal culture must be gifted, not personally procured by the celebrants. instance, it is common knowledge that the Chinese have a special place for the number eight, as it is the number associated with good fortune. Conversely, the number thirteen Ayo recalled that the Igbo culture of Nigeria from where his mother hailed also is associated with ill-fortune in some cultures. reveres the number four. Similar to the Aboriginal belief in four natural elements, the Igbos also believe in the following: The Sun or Anyawu, the source of life and husband Among the Aboriginal cultures of North America, the number four has divine of the Moon. The Moon or Onwa, the keeper of time and wife of Anyawu. The Sky or and spiritual attributes. For instance, the number four represents the four elements of Elu, the abode of recognized deities. Finally, the Earth or Ala, the abode, and source of nature to which obeisance is ascribed. First, the sun, which represents light, and it is sustenance for humans. “But how can two different cultures across two continents share considered the source of every living thing. Second, the thunder, which is associated a somewhat similar belief?” That was the question Ayo asked himself. with rain producing water, essential to the survival of living things. Third, the wind, the source of air, without which no living thing can survive. Lastly, the buffalo, which Another aspect of the Igbo culture that relates to the preeminence of the number represents food, an absolute necessity for every living thing. As noted in the response four is in the designation of the days of the week. There are only four days in the Igbo 202 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 203 traditional week. Each day is ascribed to a market day in the following order: Eke, Orie, to identify a few similarities and differences between both ways of life. He observed that Afor, and Nkwo. the art of naming in both traditions is situational. It is based on a significant event in the life of the bearer. However, while recipients of spirit names in the Aboriginal tradition Back in the sweat lodge, another number which Ayo noted was the number thirty- have to wait until certain stars are properly aligned, the Yoruba people, on the other two. There were thirty-two grandfathers at the start of the fourth and final round of hand, name their children on the eight day after they were born. Among the Yoruba sweat. The thirty-two rocks symbolized the years of training of the lead celebrant. The people of Western Nigeria, child naming is a very important aspect of the culture. The testimony was that Elder Agartha had fulfilled thirty-two years of scholarship in her system is one in which the child is named based on the circumstances surrounding his or native tradition. The thirty-two years of training show completion, leaving nothing more her birth. For instance, a child born right after the demise of a grandparent, if the child to acquire. “That is even more than the required time from grade 1 to earning a doctorate is male, and the beloved departed was male, the child’s name, circumstantially, will be in the western education system,” Ayo observed. Babatunde, which means, father or grandfather has returned. On the other hand, if the “What’s in a name?” Ayo has always had a fascination for traditional names, especially child were to be female, and the departed beloved was also female, the child’s name will unique names which are a result of significant events that occurred at the time of birth be Iyabo or Yetunde, meaning, mother or grandmother has returned. The Yoruba believe or other significant moments in the life of the bearer. Spiritual names are a common part very strongly in reincarnation. With the Aboriginal naming tradition, the system appears of the Aboriginal cultures of North America. to be more spiritual. A child would normally be called by whatever names the parents When the curtain was pulled down to signify the commencement of the sweat chose, and the child will be known and referred to by that name until such a time when ceremony, Elder Agartha introduced herself by her spiritual name – Dancing Star. the child came of age and decided to explore his or her spirituality. During the process of According to her story, which she narrated in brief to the congregation of sweaters, “I the exploration, which usually involves spiritual exercises such as undertaking a lengthy was blessed with the name at the end of a forty-day fast in the wilderness,” the elder said. fast and presenting a prescribed gift or gifts to an elder, the person will then be blessed “The name came to me from the spirits.” with a spirit name. Both the Yoruba and the Aboriginal naming cultures are also similar

Both Martin and Kristen have spirit names as well. They are Soaring Eagle and in the sense that names have associated meanings. A striking difference, however, is that Morning Star respectively. Ayo attempted to make some comparisons between the on the one hand, the Yoruba names which are usually given to the child exactly one week aboriginal spirit-naming tradition and the Yoruba child-naming tradition. He was able after he/she is born becomes part of the child’s identity - his or her legal name. That is the name that will be recorded in the child’s birth certificate and any other government-issued 204 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 205 document. In the Aboriginal culture, however, the spirit name which is usually given at classification. Male to the right, female to the left. After everyone was comfortably seated, a later stage may never be recorded in the person’s birth certificate. It is a ceremonial Martin wanted to know whether there were first-timers to not only that particular sweat name mostly used in special occasions, and sometimes at home by people such as elders ceremony but to any other sweat. Of all those present, only Ayo and Xia indicated that and others who are very close to the bearer of the spirit-given name. Another quick fact they were neophytes by the raising of hands. worth mentioning about the Yoruba naming tradition is that the Yoruba have another Martin reminded the group that they were about to commence the sweating part class of names called oriki - a praise name. It is sometimes used to connect the bearer to of the ceremony. “I would like to encourage you all to have an open mind because it is his or her clan by describing the heroic exploits of the clan. Though special, this class possible that you have a spiritual experience while undergoing the sweat,” he advised. of names are not ceremonial. They may or may not be included in a government-issued According to Martin, it was not unusual for someone to experience a visitation from his document. An oriki may also be an endearment name mostly used by one’s parents and or her forebears. other loved ones, including one’s spouse and clan elders as a symbol of honour, respect, The prospect of encountering a ghost in the dome was a rather scary proposition, and affection. An average Yoruba child raised in a Yoruba home with culturally sensitive to say the least, to Ayo. parents would have an oriki. Martin, however, attempted to allay everyone’s fear. “Don’t be afraid; just have an open mind. If you are fortunate to have a spiritual visitation, then consider yourself Part II – Epiphany blessed.”

They were finally going to start the ceremony. The elder invited everyone who was After Martin was done with his exhortation, it was time for the ceremonial pipe still outside to come into the dome. They went in one after the other, on all fours, to make its rounds. Elder Agartha lit the pipe and drew her first smoke. She passed it on headfirst into the dome. The significance of the headfirst entry represents the journey to Ayo, but not before guiding him on how to receive the pipe. To receive the pipe, one of the spermatozoa towards the female egg leading to conception. Similarly, after the must accept it with both hands by supporting the bowl area with one hand to prevent sweat, a sweater must again emerge from the dome, which is seen as the uterus, headfirst, breaking the wooden shank. Also, smokers and nonsmokers alike must accept the pipe. representing the natural birthing of a child. Everyone must touch his or her chest with the bowl end of the pipe before passing it on to the next person. The pipe went round among the group of sweaters four times. The participants in the ceremony chose their spots in the dome based on their gender

206 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 207 After the pipe ceremony, Martin brought in a bucket of medicinal water with a Hot steam pervaded the entire dome. Ayo suddenly found himself struggling to adjust small evergreen branch. He passed on both items to Elder Agartha. The elder gently set to the change in the atmosphere inside the dome. The simple act of breathing suddenly the full bucket right in front of herself. Everyone patiently waited for Martin to pull became an onerous one. Sweat was beginning to pour out of every sweat duct of his down the canvas curtain hanging over the entrance of the dome. But before pulling body. Just when he thought he was beginning to adjust to the change, a second dip and down the curtain, Martin first ensured that everyone was ready and properly seated. pull, followed by another high-intensity sizzling sound. More sweat followed. It went Martin sat at a proximal distance to the entrance; he was the gatekeeper. The very instant on two more times. After the fourth time, Elder Agartha sang an Apache song which that the curtain came down, the dome was plunged into pitch darkness. It was so dark she had learned from her father. After the song, followed by a brief moment of personal that it would be a fruitless exercise to try to see one’s hand even if it were placed an inch meditation, and the question whether everyone was okay especially first-timers like Ayo away from one’s face. and Xia, it was time to raise the curtain.

Ayo felt completely blind in the absolute darkness. He imagined that was what With daylight now flooding the dome again, Ayo took the opportunity to examine they meant by the dome being a replica of one’s mother’s womb. Life appeared to have himself. He wanted to see how well he had sweated at the end of the first round. gone a complete cycle, and they were back to where it all started. “I suppose I have gone Before the start of the second round, an enamel cup containing cold drinking back to being an embryo again,” he thought to himself. water was passed around. Everyone in the circle took a sip from the cup. Ayo made Elder Agartha’s words interrupted Ayo’s thoughts. He found himself listening the important observation that the life-celebrating circle did not discriminate against intently to what she was saying. The darkness wasn’t a barrier to the penetration of her anyone. In fact, there was no room for discrimination. The group saw itself as many words. The elder’s words carried on to everyone in the dome like they are light themselves. human embryos cohabiting a single womb. The eleven of them were children of one She said a prayer, thanking her creator, all her progenitors, and her mother. She thanked mother, one cup, one family. The second and third rounds went the same way as the first. them all for the gift of life, and for blessing her with a name. She also mentioned her Ayo has become accustomed to the routine. beautiful spirit name, Dancing Star, which served as her piece of identification in the The fourth and final round of sweat started like the previous three. But this time, spiritual realm. there were thirty-two hot grandfathers in the pit. Elder Agartha, like in previous times, Ayo’s ears picked up the sound of something coming out of a body of water. The splashed the hot rocks with water using the evergreen branch four times. The heat this next thing that followed was the sizzling sound “wuussh,” of water pouring on hot rocks. time seemed to, at least to Ayo, have increased by some notches. “Why is this so?” He 208 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 209 pondered. “I suppose it’s because there are more rocks this time.” would all be over soon. No sooner had he managed to calm down that he had an out-of- body experience. The participants, before entering the fourth round had been informed that they would all take turns to splash the hot rocks. Elder Agartha called Ayo from the pitch “Ayo! Ayo!” The young woman in her late twenties called. “Wake up! You will be darkness in the dome by his name to indicate that she was handing over the bucket of late for school if you don’t get up right away!” She gently tapped the ten-year-old on his medicinal water to him. left foot after exposing it by first pushing aside his blanket.

Ayo groped in the darkness for the almost-full bucket of medicinal water. He “Huumm!” was the only sound that the little boy made, as he stretched his lean touched the metallic rim and lifted the bucket towards himself with both his sweaty frame. He groped for the blanket without opening his eyes. His mother quickly pulled hands. Thanks to a few embers, he was able to sense the position of the pit. He did back the blanket and away from the reach of the small groping hands. the first splash and was amazed at the sizzling sound that followed. He felt a sense of “I need you to get up! Your bathing water is already in the bathroom!” pride for being the facilitator of the heat. He had no time to think about how his body “No, mom, I don’t feel like going to school today, I am feeling sick.” The boy was responding; he was focused on doing the splashing correctly without accidentally complained. “I think I have a fever.” He coiled himself into a fetal position since he overturning the bucket. After the fourth time, he passed it on to the next male sitting to couldn’t get back his blanket. his left. Ayo quietly retreated to his original position. He tried like several other times during the sweat to wrap his arms around his two raised knees. Again, like at former Anike felt for the boy’s neck using the back of her right hand. Sure enough, he was times, his effort was greeted with failure because of the slippery state of his entire body. already running a temperature. Her fears from the previous night before retiring to bed Therefore, he resorted to dropping his arms to his sides with both his palms on the was confirmed. Ayo wasn’t his usual bubbling self after he came back from school the carpeted floor. previous afternoon. He didn’t play soccer with his friends as he was used to doing each day after school. Rather, he napped all afternoon and was forced to wake up to eat supper. It suddenly happened when the third person away from him was doing the splashing. Now she knew for a certainty that her son was down again with malaria. She felt very The steamy heat was excruciating. He tried to raise his head higher, with the hope of sorry for him. She replaced his sleeping blanket with a more breathable two-yard piece of discovering a pocket of cool air above the level of the heat. But like a pilot hoping to ankara. She called her neighbour, Iya Titi, to cancel their planned trip to Ogbete market. fly higher than a stormy cloud only to discover more turbulence so was Ayo. The heat seemed to rise all the way to the heavens. He decided to calm down and pray that it At intervals of between thirty and forty-five minutes, she checked on the sick child. Each 210 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 211 time, she felt his temperature with the back of her hand. akamu-laded spoon. Anike patiently fed her son who seemed to want to take a brief rest after each spoon. Thermometers were found only in hospitals and the homes of people in medical practice, not something commonly found in the average person’s home. Feeling the neck “No more, mom,” he finally said. He had only eaten about a quarter of the content and back of a person using the back of one’s hand was also a good way of checking body of the medium-sized bowl. He made to lie on his right side on the bed, but his mother temperature. quickly stopped him.

Shortly before noon, she brought Ayo an enamel bowl of akamu, and a plastic bowl “Not so fast! You should try some of the akara.” She picked one ball of akara and containing four balls of akara. “Wake up and eat, my child,” she gently appealed. She handed it to him. Ayo accepted it. He had always loved akara. He bit a piece of the soft prayed that she wouldn’t have to force-feed him. ball and chewed it slowly. Two more bites and chews, the first akara disappeared. Anike happily handed him the second ball. This time, it took some encouragement before he “Okay, mom,” the child responded drowsily. “But I want to sleep a little more.” could finish the secondakara. “You shouldn’t be lying down right after a meal. Come “You must get up now before you become too weak to do so.” Mom insisted. with me to the living room and watch a cartoon video.” “Okay,” said the child, as he slowly pilled off the ankara wrapper. He gradually Shortly after 4 pm, Akin, Anike’s husband returned home from work. He had been collected himself as he sat up in his bed. gone as always since 6 am. He made his way to the bedroom to take off his work clothes “Will you feed yourself?” asked Anike, presenting him with a silver-coded spoon. and to change into a pair of khaki shorts and a T-shirt. “Or do you want me to spoon-feed you?” “Ayo didn’t go to school this morning,” Anike informed her husband. “I think he Ayo accepted the spoon. He held on to it but didn’t make any attempt to dip it into has malaria.” the bowl. In fact, he suddenly appeared to be dozing off. Akin continued with his changing business appearing not to have heard his wife. “Come-on, wake up!” Anike scolded. The strong tone of her voice jolted the child. “Your food is on the dining table, and your bathing water is in the bathroom.” She Ayo handed back the spoon to his mother. “Please feed me; I am too tired.” left her husband in the bedroom and returned to cutting the spinach on the kitchen

Anike accepted the spoon. She scooped a spoon-full of akamu and directed it counter. towards the sick boy’s mouth. “Open up!” The child opened his mouth to accept the 212 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 213 After having had both his bath and supper, Akin went to the kitchen to get his bag containing the collected herbs into the kitchen. “Please make it fast. Leave everything machete. He didn’t bother to check on Ayo. He simply knew what he must do about the else that you are doing and focus on this.” malaria plaguing his son. “I will be back shortly,” he announced to his wife as he left the Anike picked up the bag and went about carrying out her husband’s directives. house. About an hour later, she found her husband and Ayo in the living room watching the 7 After walking a distance of about two kilometers from his quarters in the military pm local news on the television. “The àgbo is ready, Baba Ayo.” barracks, he came to the bush area surrounding the Board Ammunitions Depot (BAD) “Okay, we will be out shortly; thank you.” Akin turned to his son. “O ya, go to the of the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army in Enugu. He cut a few rough-looking barks bedroom, take off your clothes and join me in the bathroom.” He instructed his son. from a cashew tree which he found in the bush. He also found a neem tree in the area from which he harvested some leafy branches. Because the leaves of a neem tree are Ayo stood up on wobbly legs; he fell back on the couch landing on his bottom. “I very bitter to taste, and the bitter taste lasts longer on one’s palms even after prolonged think I am very weak, dad,” he said to his father as they both made eye contact. washing, he carefully made use of his machete rather than expose his palms to such “Come, I will help you up.” Akin guided his son to the bedroom. He helped him acridity. After cutting down some of the neem leaves, he carefully used his machete to get out of his clothes and then led him to the bathroom. He sat Ayo down on a small transfer the leaves into his small bag like a successful snake hunter would treat a trapped wooden kitchen stool which had been put there by Anike. Akin made a quick dash to poisonous snake. There were also a few pawpaw trees in the area. All he needed from the front of the house where the cauldron was still boiling on the open wood fire. Using them were dried paw-paw leaves which usually fall off the trees still attached to their a small towel to protect his palms from being scalded, he picked up the cauldron and hollow leaf-bearing stems. He was in luck. He found enough dried leaves at the base of carefully carried it into the house, and straight to the bathroom. “Mama Ayo, please a few pawpaw trees. “One final ingredient,” he muttered to himself. He walked the short bring me some blankets!” He made it to the bathroom without an incident. He placed distance to the administrative building of the BAD Unit where he found what he was the cauldron on the bathroom floor and waited for his wife to arrive with the blankets. looking for – lemongrass. He collected a bunch of the grass which was growing in front “Where are the blankets?” He called out to his wife, feeling impatient. “Don’t let the of the building. He did a quick check of his mental list again and was satisfied that he àgbo go cold on us!” had all four items required for the àgbo. It was time to head back home. “Here they are, sir!” Anike rushed in as she handed out four grey military-issued “Boil these in the large cauldron!” He directed his wife, tossing the small shopping blankets to her husband. 214 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 215 Akin looked around the 6x4 bathroom space and directed Ayo to place the wooden the living room to the bedroom and only stopping short of opening the door that led stool in the middle of the space. He then placed the steaming cauldron directly in front to the bathroom through the bedroom. What she wouldn’t give to pull her beloved son of his now-seated son. The cauldron was only a couple of inches away from the boy. from under the blankets. Tears were already streaming down her cheeks. She tried to wipe them off with the loose end of her ankara wrapper. She never seemed to be able to Little Ayo knew what was coming. He was always prone to malaria, a common handle sweat therapy even though they had to do it about three times in a year since the affliction in the tropics. There were two options for treating malaria in their home. First, time Ayo turned seven and became old enough to undergo the sweat. they could treat malaria using traditional knowledge with herbs through sweating and drinking the bitter concoction. Second, they could go the way of orthodox medicine Ayo cried and cried, but Akin didn’t let him out. through the use of prescribed quinine tablets. The tablets were available in the Pharmacy The sweat lasted a whole ten minutes. Then, Akin removed all four blankets covering Department of the Military Hospital. Out of the two options, Ayo preferred the sweat the boy. because healing was faster and he wouldn’t have to put up with three sleepless nights of Ayo appeared to be in a daze, short of hallucinating. His father took an empty frustrating body-itching that always accompany the administration of quinine tablets. bucket and diluted some hot àgbo from the cauldron with some cold water. His father He belonged to the percentage of people who react to quinine tablets with severe itching gave him a warm bath using the mixture. After the bath, he was dried up with a white which often lasted three days. military-issued towel which had two green parallel and horizontal strips running through Ayo’s thoughts were interrupted by the sudden darkness into which he was plunged. it. He was now sitting under the weight of four blankets with only the steaming cauldron as Akin guided his son back to the bedroom. He sat him up in bed and offered him a his companion. “Baba, this is too hot!” he was almost screaming from under the blanket. half-full medium-sized enamel cup containing the black concoction of àgbo. “I am going to die!” Ayo accepted the cup like a good child would, even though he dreaded the very Akin heard him crying out from under the blanket. He felt very sorry for his son, bitter taste that would soon pervade his mouth. The little boy held the cup by its handle but he reminded himself that the treatment was going to do Ayo some good in the end. in his right hand. He took two slow deep breaths, brought the rim of the cup up to the “Hold on son! It will soon be over,” as he tried to throw in some words of encouragement. space between his lips, shut both his eyes, and tilted the cup. He was overwhelmed by the Anike too heard her son’s cry of agony. She had been pacing back and forth from strong bitter taste now resident in his mouth, but he continued to gulp down the content

216 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 217 of the cup. He had learned from experience that the best way to treat a cup of àgbo was He opened his eyes. He realized that he was sitting half naked with only a pair of not to stop drinking after one had started. Because to do so would mean to start all over, shorts in a dome. He wasn’t alone. He also observed that he was pouring with sweat from which may turn out to be an impossible task. every tiny hole of his body. He heard a distinguished lady sitting to his right ask that they all say the serenity prayer1. “Good boy,” Akin remarked as he supervised his son. He collected the now empty cup from him. “Lie down on your left side. You will be feeling very well in no time.” He All eight voices automatically responded: “God grant me the serenity to accept the assured his son as he tucked him in bed. He stood watch over the sleeping boy to study things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the the pattern of his breathing. difference.”

“Is he sleeping?” Asked Anike who had been standing unnoticed behind her husband since he assumed the standing position.

“Yes. I think he has fallen into a deep healing sleep. Our boy is going to be fine by the time he wakes up. Make sure you have something ready for him because he is going to be feeling very hungry.” 1. Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr http://www.beliefnet.com/prayers/protestant/addiction/serenity-prayer.aspx

Ayo saw himself flying over great oceans and high mountains, over sandy desserts and lushly green plains. Then he was flying through a deep canyon. He found himself flying towards a black hole at the end of the thoroughfare. He was like a drone in flight whose travel path and destination are determined by someone at the controls. He flew right into the black hole which turned out to be the doorway into a dark tunnel. His flight continued unchecked, and so did the dark tunnel. When light finally appeared, it wasn’t anticipated. It wasn’t like something that appeared at the end of the tunnel, but it appeared abruptly. It was like someone lifted a curtain. The dark tunnel in Ayo’s dream- like world was suddenly flooded with light.

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DECONSTRUCTION You consider pitching forward into the moon like Li Po. Now there was a poetic ending. You want to construct Face first into the water reaching the perfect suicide. for the unreachable.

There are as many methods But what if you don’t drink? as there are people, and as yet or own a boat? no one has ever pulled one off Hm.

with the correct amount of The absence of a gun is troublesome, style, panache, and that most an inconvenience really, difficult of quantities... missing is the heft of oily steel mechanism grace. sure and swift transportation to “the undiscovered country from whose After you burn your ear borne...” you know the rest. in the kitchen, imitating Sylvia Plath, the hose But those are messy. slips out your driver’s side There is no style in a self-painted window, you awaken with Thanatopsis someone else a headache, the volume of will have to clean up. Anne Sexton open on your lap.

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This is supposed to be poetic. I wonder if Hart Crane knew, It’s supposed to mean something, skipping off the Lido Deck to make the world split open and into the Gulf of Mexico everyone take notice, drunk on wine and rejection, think for a moment: “wow, that was art.” that it was a poetic tradition They’re supposed to join hands he was joining? and sing Kum By Ya for that matter. You realize it’s all bunk. And what about Berryman off the Washington Bridge? It’s none of that. It’s just you Minnesota’s too far away... looking at the wreck of your narrow little dream there’s not much beautiful getting what you ordered out of life and about being a sot, and wanting to send it back to the kitchen. it’s almost time for happy hour. Argue with the chef, the maître de, but Anyway, and you shouldn’t not the bartender. NEVER the bartender. keep your co-conspirators waiting.

Oh, Li Po, the bartender was your friend, wasn’t he? —Allen Berry Your willing co-conspirator. “A little more rice wine for the journey? Sure, why not? Lovely moon out You should see it...”

222 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 223 Frosted Sue Matheson

“Guess I do Look Rotten—Yust out of the Hospital:” Female Psychological Turmoil in Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie

by Olfa Gandouz, University of Gabes, Gabès, Tunisia and University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia

Introduction

An atmosphere of mystery prevails in Anna Christie because Eugene O’Neill seeks to dramatize the seriously disturbed psychic life of a former prostitute who pretends to be a chaste woman so that she would be easily integrated within the patriarchal mainstream society. Indeed, the play was primarily entitled “Tides and was copyrighted as the Ole Devil.”1 From a psychoanalytic angle, both titles are significant, identifying the symbolic function of the sea as the epitome of the unconscious world. In The Psychology of the Transference, Jung compares the unconscious to the sea by defining it as “an island surrounding itself with the sea and unlike the sea itself, the unconscious yields an endless

and self-replenishing abundance of living creatures, a wealth beyond our fathoming.”2 The profound nature of the unconscious self resembles the depth of the sea. In fact, “the

1. Egil Tornqvist. Eugene O’Neill: A Playwright’s Theatre. New Heaven: Yale University Press, (1999), p. 89. 2. Jung. The Psychology of the Transference. London: Routledge, (2013), p. 177. 224 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 225 sea, as symbol of the… unconscious has not real boundaries.”3 Ineffable, the unconscious the hidden part of an iceberg, Anna’s past is concealed, and her sexual relationships and goes beyond our understanding because of its psychological complexes. In the play, the traumatic event of rape are buried. complexity is created because of the constant struggle between Anna’s outer self and the “It‘s Man all the time! Gawd I hate them:” Female Neurasthenia tumultuous inner one. The sea functions as a metaphor for Anna’s unconscious sphere,

which centers on her longing for a purified soul. Anna’s confused female psyche, her In Anna Christie, the heroine’s neurasthenia is caused by her fear of being stigmatized desire to forge an ideal mask of idealization and her fall into psychological troubles by female stereotypes. Obsessed with curtaining her past as a raped girl and a former because of prostitution, also add dramatic intensity to the play. prostitute, Anna, faces the nightmare of having tarnished reputation. In part, culture helps to shape female neurasthenia. According to historian Robin Hallers, neurasthenia as The Female Social Burden “a reservoir of class prejudices, status desires, repressed sexuality [and] urban arrogance”.5 The duality between misleading appearances and the complex interior world is the Anna is tired because she discovers that her father is a common worker and considers source of the play’s dramatic intensity. This dichotomy is made conspicuous from the prostitution to be the best form of financial support. However, prostitution is forbidden very beginning of Anna Christie through the physical delineation of the heroine whose in a patriarchal society where women are considered as “creatures inferior to men yet “youthful face is already hard and cynical beneath its layer of make-up. Her clothes are somehow akin to angels.”6 Anna’s neurasthenic tendencies are noticeable when she yells: the tawdry finery of peasant stock turned prostitute” (Act 1, 73). Despite her young age, “I am tired to death, I need a rest, I don’t see much chance of getting it” (Act 1, 84). Anna is obviously life- weary and her beauty is extinguished. Her weariness emanates Anna becomes nervous and feels responsible for supporting her father financially, but from the fear of being socially denigrated inside her strict patriarchal milieu where a raped she is also concerned about her social reputation and regrets the disrespect of the socially woman and a former prostitute are secluded. She therefore puts a mask of idealization invented angelic female qualities. When her father complains about his psychological ill- and pretends to follow social codes so that male characters will give her a high social being, she tells him that she is sicker than him. He explains: “Ay work on land long time position. Her fear of social judgment vanishes during her journey in the sea where her as yanitor…. Ay got dis yob cause Ay vas sick, need open air. Anna [sceptically] Sick? unconscious part is unveiled. As Jeffrey Nevid points out, “[t]he unconscious is like the You? You’d never think it” (Act 1, 83).Interrupting the father shows Anna’s amplification large mass the iceberg lying under the surface of the water. It contains primitive sexual of her deep fatigue. Her depression is another aspect of her neurasthenia. 5. Louise Newman. “Health, Sciences and Sexualities in Victorian America.” A Companion to American Women’s 4 and aggressive impulses as well as memories of troubling emotional experiences.” Like History. Ed. Nancy Hewitt. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, (2005), p. 481. 3. Ibid. 6. Jerome Loving. Lost in Customhouse: Authorship in American Renaissance. Iowa: University of Iowa Press, (2005), 4. Jeffrey Nevid. Psychology: Concepts and Applications. Boston: Cengage Learning, (2012), p. 481. p. 109. 226 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 227 In her interpretation of the differences between male and female neurasthenia, whose dream is to escape and go beyond the bars. This fancy denotes her longing for Charlotte Gilman Perkins observes that neurasthenia is evident in the “business man freedom and leaving the domestic jail in a patriarchal society where female domesticity exhausted from too much work, and the society woman exhausted from too much play.”7 is praised. Male oppressors in The Yellow Wallpaper ignore the psychological effects of In Anna Christie, Anna’s father’s anxiety is caused by overwork and the daughter’s malaise domesticity and the role of passivity in igniting female adversity. In this context, The is the outcome of playing many social roles. She is the devoted daughter who wants to Yellow Wallpaper’s heroine is depressed because her doctor advised her to be bed-ridden. bear her own responsibility at the expense of her body. In fact, she accepts to be exploited But instead of alleviating her pain, the rest increases the narrator’s nervous exhaustion. as a prostitute so that she can support her family financially. She affirms: “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time…I am alone a good deal just now.”8 The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper and Anna Christie share the same feelings of Anna’s psychological disturbance is also evident in her overthinking. She is psychological and social alienation. Like Anna who was exiled at the farm since the early often “seated in the rocking chair by table, unhappy troubled frowning concentrated days of her childhood, Gilman’s protagonist is imprisoned inside the walls of her domestic on her thoughts” (Act 3, 111). Anna is lost in thought because she knows that her sphere. Both women become neurasthenic as their thoughts about female independence male relatives will not tolerate her prostitution and will condemn her rape. She becomes are handicapped by male hegemonic agendas. neurasthenic because she believes herself to have been imprisoned in what she considered to be a rural asylum. Her father falsely believes that the farm was the best environment The common point of agreement between the doctor in Gilman’s novella and for her. She even tells him: “I wish you could have seen the little home in the country Anna’s father is their belief in the importance of home as a peaceful spot for female where you had me in jail till I was 16” (Act 3, 113). cure. Bette Mendl has pointed out that “Gilman suggested in a treatise in 1903 that home was viewed as something perfect, holy, and quite above discussion. This idea In a similar vein, Gilman Perkins confirms that passivity and female domesticity about home also seems to dominate the imagination of the Tyrone family” in Eugene accentuate female psychological sears. In The Yellow Wallpaper, she invents a female O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. 9 In A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the Tyrones captive who is so deeply restricted that she fancies about the existence of some female condemn their mother for disrespecting the sanctity of home without recognizing that ghosts. The caged woman reveals: “candlelight, lamplight and worst of all by moonlight, she is psychologically traumatized because of her loneliness and the unsettledness of their it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it as plain as can be. father. Their mother is so psychologically disturbed that she becomes a source of horror I didn’t realize for long time what the thing was showed behind, that dim sub pattern, but 8. Gilman, Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Chicago: Mundus Publishing, (1990), p. 18. now I quite sure it is a woman”(40). She fancies the existence of a woman in the wallpaper 9. Mendl, Bette. "Wrestling With The Angel In The House: Mary Tyrone's Long Journey," http://www.eoneill.com/ 7. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Human Work. Walnut Creek: Rowan Altamira, (2005), p. xiii. library/newsletter/xii-3/xii-3e.htm. 228 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 229 for Jamie. He discloses to his father: “It was her being in the spare room that scared me” According to Charlotte Perkins Gilman “for men, neurasthenia meant passivity and (Act 4, 133). Jamie is also ashamed of his mother’s morphine addiction and associates her lassitude, derived from the sedentary effects of the modern workplace; neurasthenia was addiction to drugs with prostitutes: “I’d never dreamed before any women but whores marked by depression over the balance between work, family, and the inability to function took dope” (Act 4, 143). as properly feminine.”11 From a feminist vantage point, neurasthenia is a psychological malaise caused by gender inequity and the social pressure inflicted on women after quitting Like Jaimie Tyrone who believes that only whores use narcotics, Anna’s father believes the domestic sphere. This view is supported by the female physician Dr Margaret Cleaves only prostitutes use obscene language. It is clear that at her moments of nervousness, who confirms that nineteenth century women suffered from neurasthenia because they Anna uses uncensored speech and employs some harsh words to rage against a patriarchal used to “fulfill the duties of wives, mothers and housekeepers with never ending social society that turns a deaf ear to female exploitation or women’s psychological wounds. duties and under unhygienic influences.”12 She blusters: “I’d get the hell out of this barge so quick you couldn’t see me for dust” (Act 3, 111). Notably, instead of understanding that Anna is irritated, the father denounces This patriarchal classification of women intensifies Anna’s psychological dilemma. her violent tone. He wonders: “You vas getting learn to svear. Dat ain’t nice for young Anna, who played the role of a servant in the farm, is appreciated by Bruke who believes gel, you tank?” (Act 3, 111). Promoting the same patriarchal agenda, Anna’s father and that women in the land are “chaste” and different from sea women who spend their lives the Tyrones do not recognize that social repression affects the female psyche. Anna is roaming from one ship to another. Bruke idealizes Anna and classifies her as a “pure” frustrated because her father does not give her the floor to speak her mind. woman when he is informed that she used to practice nursing. Strangely, despite the fact that women’s integration in the professional life was not appreciated by the patriarchal A rest cure is prescribed for Anna because she has some symptoms of neurasthenia. community, some jobs related to domestic duties were accepted. Between 1840 and But when she visits her father, she is concerned whether he will provide her with respite 1850, the first generation of nurses appeared and some women moved from the domestic or will add to her distress. Her confusion is made explicit through her skeptical tone and to the public sphere to show their female virtue. This virtue can be manifested through her doubts about her father’s intentions. She asks Marthy: “then you think he‘ll stake me the association of nursing to philanthropy. As Carol Helmstadter, a specialist in the to that rest I’m after?” (Act 1, 77). Here, it is pertinent to remember that the nineteenth history of American nurses, puts it, “disease was considered a variation from God to century American physician, Silas Weir Mitchell recommended the rest cure “to general improve the moral character of the sick person, nursing also offered an opportunity for practitioners at the earliest signs of neurasthenia,… to avoid the possibility of insanity 11. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. His Religion and Hers. Walnut Creek: Rowan Altamira, (2003), p. xvi. 10 developing.” 12. Dana Becker. The Myth of Empowerment: Women and the Therapeutic Culture in America. New York: New York 10. Cheryl Warsh. Moments of Unreason. Quebec: McGill Queen’s Press, (1989), p.45. University Press, (2005), p. 85. 230 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 231 ladies to exercise their capacities for the moral improvement of others.”13 We recognize used to be a nurse,: “in 1898 she spent two months in Puerto Rico, nursing American that nursing as a profession contributes to the moral uplifting of women. This moral soldiers in the war with Spain.”15 In Anna Christie, O’Neill mimes the dilemma of his idealization of nurses encouraged some women to create a network of sisterhoods. In this female relatives and links female domesticity and female exploitation to criticize women’s respect, the Nursing sisters of the Holy Cross was founded in 1841 and some nurses of suffering inside and outside the domestic sphere. the Holy Cross were idealized because of their moral goodness that is reflected in their Rest Cure: A Pathological Therapy philanthropic activities. One sister describes the virtuous mission of the Holy Cross‘s nurses by announcing: “God’s instrument of good…. To spread the congregation of the In the nineteenth century, the rest cure was offered as a solution for female Holy Cross wherever there is need of ministrations for the sick, care for the orphan, and neurasthenia and intense nervousness. There are differences between the rest cure 14 training for youth.” These activities mirror the nurses’ piety and their use of domestic prescribed to men and women. In fact, when “Mitchell diagnosed neurasthenia in men, duties for the sake of creating a positive image of moral goodness. he prescribed a trip west, with as much rigorous outdoor activity and the recording

16 Anna derides the traditional image of “ideal” nurses when she reveals her inner of closely observed detail as possible.” The doctor advised men to be active, but he dilemma and how she has been exploited. She screams: “being a nurse girl was yust what recommended another regime for women, one that was based on “absolute bed rest, finished me … When you are only a kid yourself and you want to go out” (Act 1, 79). absence of intellectual or creative activity, massage, over feeding and in a later refinement,

17 She is nervous because she was prevented from enjoying the phase of childhood; instead electro therapy.” Chris follows Mitchell’s prescription when he advises Anna to have of rejoicing in the age of innocence, she was ordered to follow the social dictums which a rest: “you don’t never have to work as nurse gel no more. You stay with me, by golly” instill in young girls the idea of female submission and convince them to accept their state (Act 1, 84). He believes that overwork is the major drive behind Anna’s psychological of thralldom. This social consideration of women leads Anna to the brink of depression. malaise, being unaware of the role of female minimization has in intensifying her distress. He adds: “You work too hard for young gel already. You need vacation, yes” (Act 1, O’Neill’s sympathy with the female nurse stems from the history of his family 85). This male interpretation of female anxiety is mocked by the female activist Perkins and his constant suffering because of his absent father. Indeed, the playwright observed Gilman. She criticizes male misunderstanding of women’s anxiety and affirms that female the dilemma of his female relatives who were compelled to face hardships and to work for psychological malaise does not lie in having “physical pain [but consists in having] just a living. A prime example of this dilemma is evidenced by O’Neill’s paternal aunt who 15. Charles Royster. Garrison Tales from Tonquin. Baton Rouge :Louisiana State University Press, (2006), p. 1. 13. Carol Hemastadter.“Professionalizing Nursing in Nineteenth Century London.” Nursing History Review. Volume 16. Christine Bold . The Frontier Club: Popular Westerns, and Cultural Power 1880-1924. Oxford: Oxford University 11, (2003), p. 126. Press, (2013), p. 59. 14. Ave Maria. A Story of Fifty Years. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, (2010), p. 214. 17. Ibid. 232 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 233 mental torment, and so heavy in its nightmare gloom that it seemed real enough to an unqualified rest cure”20—and criticizes Mitchell’s technique, because it leads to female dodge.”18 Gilman insists that physical rest does not contribute to reduce psychological passivity, by ordering women to be confined to bed and to do less efforts. nervousness. Cleaves’ call for female dynamism is shared by Eugene O’Neill who used to Anna also does not believe in the efficiency of the rest cure because it attempts encourage actresses to be active instead of resorting to rest cure as a therapy. For example, to heal women physically and does not pay attention to their inner psychological strife. when actress Lillian Gish was in Germany taking care of her ill mother, “vacationing Her hopelessness emerges when she does not expect her father to understand her. When alone in Bad Nauheim and taking the rest cure,”21 she received a telephone call from the he promises to afford her with comfort, she answers: “[wearily] Gee, I need that rest! American drama critic, George Jean Nathan. “[T]he manuscript Nathan informed her, I’m knocked out. [Then resignedly] But I ain’t expecting too much from him” (Act had been finished and O’Neill, impressed with Lillian’s earnestness in memorizing the 1, 77). Anna is pessimistic because she expects her father to be harsh and to ignore roles…suggested her once more.”22 O’Neill’s request for Gish demonstrates his support her psychological distress after learning about her past. It is obvious that the rest cure of female productivity outside the home and his opposition to the idea of confining does not help Anna get rid of her psychological troubles. In reality, the rest cure’s women to the traditional social roles. Female activity was also hailed by Gilman who “technique emphasized childlike obedience and its success was based on the authority of announces: “what we need is not rest, the cessation of action—but more power and the physician.”19 Depriving women of any possibility of independence, its male centered better engines.”23 Anna, however, is not provided with “better engines,” because she approach shows that the doctor’s dictates are based on male authority. Denouncing remains lost in thought, even when her father provides her with physical comforts. She is Mitchell’s therapy and abandoning the rest cure, Margaret Cleaves, a female colleague immersed in psychological distress because she lives in a society where female prostitutes of Doctor Mitchell, expresses female resentment against the way women were treated are incriminated with no opportunity to defend themselves. Accordingly, she resorts to and defined as passive creatures. Her rejection of the rest cure also alludes to the call for the sea as a locus of psychological comfort. replacing passivity by vigorous activity. Challenging Mitchell’s technique by declaring Female Journey into Sea that women should play active social roles instead of being imprisoned at home, Cleaves

recounts her own experience—“I have a physician under care now, this time a woman, The sea contributes to appease the tension of Anna’s confused memory. Anna who regrets piteously that she was not given something to feed her intelligence instead of 20. Sander Gilman. Hysteria Beyond Freud. Berkeley: University of California Press, (1993), p. 300. 21. Stuart Oderman. Lillian Gish: A Life on Stage and Screen. Fairleigh: McFarland, (2000) p. 200. 18. Perkins Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper. Chicago: Mundus Publishing, (1990), p. 50. 22. Ibid. 19. A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry. Ed. Edward Shorter. (2005), p 135. 23. Cynthia Davis. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Biography. Stanford: Stanford University Press, (2010), p 49. 234 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 235 enjoys her experience in the sea because it represents a break from her social chains and of modern civilization.”26 The sea is O’Neill’s haven of spiritual freedom, a place to which a return to the phase of innocence. Indeed, “the sea is one of the most nearly universal one may elope from social manacles and a source of “release, peace, security, beauty, of maternal symbols passively the waters accept the fertilizing action, of the flaming freedom of conscience, sinlessness… longing for the primitive and mother symbol radiations.”24 It is a maternal symbol because life in the sea equates one’s floating in yearning for pre- natal competitive freedom from fear” (Tornqvist 103). Thus, serenity is the water with the floating of the foetus in the maternal womb. Freud’s Hungarian felt when Anna discloses to her father: “I’d found something I’d missed and been looking associate, Sandor Frenczi links the embryo to the aquatic life; he notices “[the] amniotic for….If this was the right place for me to fit in? And I seem to have forgot everything fluid represents a sea interjected as it were in the womb of a mother…the delicate and that’s happened like it didn’t matter no more” (Act 2, 93). Anna misses both physical and easily injured embryo swims and executes movements like a fish in water”25. The free spiritual freedom when on land. Physical freedom is missed as she will be condemned movements in the water remind Anna of the pre-lapsian moment when she was blessed because of her raped body. Finding solace in the sea and perceiving marine life as a with peace, especially before the death of her mother. Before being an orphan, Anna used healthy environment in which women are gifted with female freedom, Anna describes to be protected by her mother, and her cousins did not dare to rape her. Because the sea the beauty of the nautical world: “yust water all round, and sun, and fresh air, and good has the protective effect associated with the mother, Anna feels relieved and clean. She gub for make you strong, healthy gel. (Act 1, 85) The natural elements provide women murmurs, “I feel clean and I feel happy for once yes, honest! Happier than I ever have with strength as they are allowed to be active, using their own visual and auditory senses been anywhere before!” (Act 2, 93). Her rejoicing originates in being freed from the while relishing the oceanic view. guilt of prostitution. On land, Anna is concerned with social reputation and is petrified When writing Anna Christie, O’Neill was also influenced by the Scottish travel of being denigrated as a former prostitute. Comparing Anna in the sea and on land writer Robert Louis Stevenson who compared life on a South Sea island to the state of reveals that she prefers life in the sea because it is not governed by any social ties. She is virginity. Virginity presupposes the presence of innocence for which Anna yearns. In his thrilled by the sea journey that she contemplates: “It’s nutty for me to feel that way, don’t In the South Seas, Stevenson refers to “the first experience [that]can never be repeated. you think” (Act 2, 93). The sea endows her with an exceptional feeling of cleanliness, The first love, the first sunrise, the first South Sea island, are memories apart and touched suggesting that she is unconsciously longing for purgation. a virginity of sun.”27 In other words, one’s first visit to the sea is like the experience of Unlike the land, “the sea symbolizes a dream like shelter against the corruption a maiden before losing virginity. This innocence is experienced by Anna who cherishes 26. Volker, Paul Duane. The Early Plays of Eugene O’Neill. Madison: University of Wisconsin, (1974), p. 24. 24.Paul Shepard. Man in the Landscape. Jackson: University of Georgia Press, (2010), p. 112. 25. Sandor Frenczi. A Theory of Genitality. New York: Norton & Company, (1968), p. 56. 27. Stevenson, Robert Louis. South Sea Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2008), p. 9. 236 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 237 lucidity at sea because it sends her back to the period of early childhood when she within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life” (Act was surrounded with the love of her parents and the respect of her cousins. She tells 4, 113). The sea is the initiator of Edmund’s elation since it contributes to his escape her father: “You see many tangs you don’t see before. You gat moonlight and night, from the dismal reality of his family’s disintegration. In the same way, Anna flies to the maybe; see steamer pass; see schooner make sail and see everytang dat’s pooty” (Act sea as a refuge from the social approbation she fears, and the sea acts as a form of spiritual 1, 85). Anna enjoys the movement of the steamers because they have the opportunity tranquilizer that helps her close her eyes to the ghosts of the past. She turns to the sea to to sail in a boundless space. Anna’s description suggests that she considers the sea as forget her past as a prostitute and to cease feeling apprehensive about being denigrated the locus of female freedom. She is obviously jealous of ships. This reaction is used by by Chris and Bruke. O’Neill elsewhere—as noted by Mourning Becomes Electra’s shipmaster, Adam Brant who Female Politics of Resistance: “You’d think I’m a piece of furniture!” observes, “women are jealous of ships. They always suspect sea” (Act 1, 44). The women’s jealousy stems from the mobility of the ships and their ability to roam to different places. A symmetrical element, strength combines female resistance with the loud This freedom and possibilities are denied to Anna who used to be stifled by social rules sound of sea waves. When Anna’s lover humiliates her and mistrusts her by stating in at the farm. a “[voice trembling with passion]: God’s curse on you! Clane, is it?” (Act 3, 135), she

As well, the motif of the sea in the O’Neill’s canon “exhibits points of confluence prefers to keep silent and does not offer any explanation. She orders him: “Get out of here! with Baudelaire’s sea poems.”28 “Les Fleurs du Mal” (1840) is one of the French poet’s Leave me alone” (Act 3, 136). Her resistant silence is meaningful, because it expresses a famous poems in which the speaker addresses free souls: “Free man, you will always furious reaction against the stereotypical confinement of women being “an alternative cherish the sea! The sea is your mirror\ your contemplate your soul.”29 Here the speaker kind of truth, or sometimes, an alternative to anger the only kind-the only kind that delineates the sea as a space for infinite spiritual freedom. With this in mind, Baudelaire is would be socially tolerated. Women’s silence may be read as a strategy of resistance and

30 a source of inspiration for O’Neill’s Edmund Tyrone who undergoes the same experience choice—a ritual of truth.” Thus, female strength is divulged by Anna seducing Bruke of quitting urban life by being proximate to the sea. In Long Day’s Journey into Night, and convincing him in a silent manner about her sincere feelings and inner depth.

Edmund recalls the positive effects of the sea: “I dissolved in the sea, became white sails Love also is a universal and non-verbal language that helps Anna rebuild her female and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm,” he says, “I belonged without past or future, identity. In reality, “Anna loves Mat, an emotion as novel as it is powerful that it will

28. Michael Manheim. “ Eugene O’Neill and the Founders of Modern Drama.”. Maufort. 47-59, p. 47. 30. Patricia Laurence. “Silence as A Rutual of Truth.” Listening to Silences. New York: Oxford University Press, (1993), 29. Ibid., 48. p. 159; also pp. 156-176. 238 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 239 complete her being.”31 Not only does he “complete her being”; she also completes his hysterical reaction is an alternative to the absence of any linguistic tools that could help by helping him create a functional family. She promises him: “I’ll get a little house her exteriorize her inner turmoil. somewhere and I’ll make a regular place for you two to come back” (Act 4, 158). Her In short, “[female hysteria] is the alternative to the male symbolic, a female miming fervent desire to establish a united family captures the attention of Bruke who admires that has no recognizable referent.”33 Anna’s hysterical fits are part of her resistance to an her supportive behaviour. His admiration shows that he appreciates Anna’s inner richness authoritative male community which devalues female presence. Her mission to debunk instead of condemning her for her past. Successful at extracting herself from the faulty female stereotypes is accomplished when she smoothly convinces Burke to re-examine socio-cultural judgements, Anna displays the ability to shift position as she moves from his consideration of a prostitute as a woman with “a rotten body.” She deconstructs the periphery to acquiring a significant and central place after dismantling the female the stereotypes inflicted against prostitutes through the intermediary of perennial love. stereotypes. In fact, love is healing for Anna as it makes Burke tolerate her past. Hence, love is Anna’s strategy of female resistance encourages her to be engaged in a monologue represented as a positive source of redemption for the former prostitute. As R. R. Khare in which she speaks her mind freely without being controlled by her male relatives. The remarks, “Without love, redemption is not enough. As a result, [she] cannot become an theater critic Percy Hammond defines Anna’s monologue as “[a] fine speech with a wallop integrated spirit because integration is possible only through love,”34 in every syllable, spoken in the racy lingo and flat monotonous tones of the Minnesota Love facilitates the social integration of Anna and her pure feelings prove her inner underworld.”32 Her monologue reverberates both her deep suffering from the monotony depth. After displaying a condescending behavior and exerting a certain male power over of captivity and her agitation against male suppression. In her monologue, Anna is heard Anna, Burke evaluates the former prostitute’s emotional profoundness. He is among the “[speaking] to herself in a tense, trembling voice: Gawd, I can’t stand this much longer! romantics who believe that “[a prostitute] embodied the belief that love can purify the What am I waiting for anyway? – like a damn fool” (Act 4, 145). She curses herself for impure and cleanse the unclean.”35 In this respect, Burke informs Anna: “If I was believing being passive, assenting to patriarchal authority, and decides to be a decision maker, that you’d never had love for any other man in the world but me- I could be forgetting, raising her sound of ire. Accordingly, she breaks into hysterical fits: “you‘re just like the the rest” (Act 4, 153). Burke’s revelation redeems Anna socially. She and Burke are turned rest of them you two! You’d think I am a piece of furniture” (Act 3, 130). Anna rages at into kindred spirits enkindled by the glow of everlasting love. O’Neill’s repositioning of Mat and Chris for considering her a commodity and struggling over possessing her. Her Burke from being dominant to considering Anna as an equal partner marks his heroine’s 31. John Patrick Diggins. Eugene O’Neill’s America: Desire Under Democracy. London: The University of Chicago Press, 33. Jill Ehnenn. Women’s Literary Collaboration. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, (2008), p. 114. (2007), p. 175. 34. R. Khare. Eugene O’Neill and His Visionary Quest. New Delhi: Mittal Publications, (1992), p.119. 32. Ivonne Shafer. Eugene O’Neill and American Society. Valencia: University of Valencia, (2011), p. 92. 35. Arthur Holmberg. “Fallen Angels at Sea.” Eugene O’Neill’s Review 20. (1996), p. 43. 240 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 241 social reconciliation. When Burke’s position shifts, Anna has successfully broken down Conclusion the male stereotype of prostitution as “moral perversity.” In Anna Christie, Eugene O’Neill revisits female stereotypes, defends female rights and According to Arthur Holmberg, Anna’s moral superiority encourages us to identify calls for a better treatment of women. Anna experiences a long journey of maltreatment her as “a childlike noble pagan, victimized by a dogmatic society which poses as Christian. that intensifies her social and psychological dislocation while O’Neill deconstructs the She is Christ against the disciples.”36 As a Christ figure, Anna’s nobility and goodness are stereotypical madonna\whore polarities when foregrounding his heroine’s inner worth. manifested in her behaviour and her emotional depth. She proves to be deeper than her Like Perkins Gilman, Anna also experiences the failure of medical discourse to endow lover Burke who superficially believes in religious scruples and forgets the importance women with psychological comfort. Neurasthenia is another common thread linking of tolerance in determining moral wealth. Holmberg points out that “[t]his tradition Gilman to Anna. Both women can be seen to be on the verge of psychological collapse which asserts the moral superiority of the prostitute over the self-righteous bourgeois when their interior strife is discounted and they are only defined as wheels turning the who condemn her, reached its literary peak with Sonya in Crime and Punishment.”37 In patriarchal machine. Anna can be considered as a tragic heroine as she spends the play Crime and Punishment, Sonya’s inner charm emerges when she supports Raskolnikov in struggling against social forces that misplace her at the margin of society, but her social his moments of distress and forgets about his haughtiness. When he is psychologically tragedy ends when she finally succeeds in carving out a larger space for herself within broken, Raskolnikov finds “Sonia beside him. She had come up noiselessly and sat down the patriarchal community. Perennial love is the gateway to her social reconciliation. Her at his side. She [gives] him a joyful smile of welcome.”38 Similarly, Anna supports Burke male lover reconsiders his misconceptions about women (especially former prostitutes) and accepts his Catholic culture (which is alien to her). Both Burke and Raskolnikov are and ends with a more objective view about female identity. In final analysis, Anna Christie captivated by female inner profoundness. Falling in love with Anna’s inner radiance makes is a play that insists that a woman should not be defined in terms of gender stereotypes, Burke propose marriage to her in a special way. Comically, he tells her: “I’d go mad if I’d but treated as an independent creature. not have you! I’d be killing the world” (Act 4, 157). This hyperbolic way of expressing his deep love for Anna signals a rebirth, for Burke repressed Anna in the previous scenes. The couple’s union, despite their ideological differences, not only showcases Anna’s strength but also guarantees her an interesting position within her community.

36. Egil Tornqvist. Eugene O’Neill: A Playwright’s Theatre. New Heaven: Yale University Press, (1999), p.46. 37. Arthur Holmberg. “Fallen Angels at Sea.” Eugene O’Neill’s Review 20. (1996), p. 43. 38. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment. Clayton: Prestwick House, (2005), p. 465. 242 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 243 Bibliography Bloom, Steven. Student Companion to Eugene O’Neill. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007. Primary Sources: Britzke, Zander. The Aesthetics of Failure: Dynamic Structure in the Plays of Eugene Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Clayton: Prestwick House, 2005. O’Neill. Jefferson: McFarland, 2001 Gilman, Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Chicago: Mundus Publishing, 1990. Davis, Cynthia. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Biography. Stanford: Stanford University --- . Human Work. Walnut Creek: Rowan Altamira, 2005. Press, 2010.

---.His Religion and Hers. Walnut Creek: Rowan Altamira, 2003. Diggins, John Patrick. Eugene O’Neill’s America: Desire Under Democracy. Chicago:

O’Neill, Eugene. Anna Christie. New York: Vintage Books, 1955. University of Chicago Press, 2007.

---. Mourning Becomes Electra. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. Ehnenn, Jill. Women’s Literary Collaboration. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008. ---. Long Day’s Journey into Night. New Heaven: Yale University Press, 1984. Print. Frenczi, Sandor. A Theory of Genitality. New York: Norton & Company, 1968. Secondary Sources: O’Neill, Eugene. Anna Christie. New York: Vintage Books, 1955. Alexander, Doris. O’Neill’s Last Plays. Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2005. Gilman, Sander. Hysteria Beyond Freud. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Barlow, Judith. “O’Neill’s Female Characters.” The Cambridge Companion to Eugene Helmastadler, Carol.“Professionalizing Nursing in Nineteenth Century London.” O'Neill. Ed. Michael Manheim. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006: Nursing History Review. Volume 11, 2003. 164- 178. Holmberg, Arthur.“Fallen Angels at Sea.” Eugene O’Neill’s Review 20 (1996): 43-63. Becker, Dana. The Myth of Empowerment: Women and the Therapeutic Culture in America. New York: New York University Press, 2005. Khare, R. R. Eugene O’Neill and His Visionary Quest. New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1992. Bloom, Harold. The Critical Response to Eugene O’Neill. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1993. Laurence, Patricia. “Silence as A Rutual of Truth.” Listening to Silences. New York:

244 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 245 Oxford University Press, 1993: 156-76. Press, 1999.

Loving, Jerome. Lost in Customhouse: Authorship in American Renaissance. Iowa: Warsh, Cheryl. Moments of Unreason. Quebec: McGill Queen’s Press, 1989. University of Iowa Press, 2005.

Manheim, Michael.“Eugene O’Neill and the Founders of Modern Drama.” Eugene O'Neill and the Emergence of American Drama. Ed. Marc Maufort. Amsterdam: Rodopi; 1989: 47-59.

Mendl, Bettee. "Wrestling With The Angel In The House: Mary Tyrone's Long Journey." The Eugene O'Neill NewsletterXII.3 (Winter 1988). Accessed on November 2016. http://www.eoneill.com/library/newsletter/xii-3/xii- 3e.htm.

Nevid, Jeffrey. Psychology: Concepts and Applications. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2012.

Newman, Louise. “Health, Sciences and Sexualities in Victorian America.” Companion to American Women’s History. Ed. Nancy Hewitt. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005:206-24.

Oderman, Stuart. Lillian Gish: A Life on Stage and Screen. Fairleigh: McFarland, 2000.

Shafer, Ivonne. Eugene O’Neill and American Society.Valencia: University of Valencia, 2011.

Shepard, Paul. Man in the Landscape. Jackson: University of Georgia Press, 2010.

Shorter , Edward. (ed.) A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry. 2005.

Tornqvist, Egil. Eugene O’Neill: A Playwright’s Theatre. New Heaven: Yale University 246 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 247 Homeward Bound Sue Matheson

ANOTHER DARK TOMORROW

‘I am writing to you from depression, from a body

of black cloud through which a bird’s shadow passes, All I can think of is cloud although like a knife.’ it is sunny everywhere around me. – Bhanu Kapil, Humanimal Why anxiety or depression, stress? Each and every day is just as dark:

Sometimes the lights at the end I can find the music but tomorrow of the tunnel are out, the sound the silence hurts. Ask someone else switched off. Reflection is just before filtered grey light or arctic night a reflection, or something coming. surfaces in my panic and finds me

Every tomorrow is a kind of quiet beyond the shadows I have hidden in. as friends I’ve upset drift away, Words and paint bewitched by despair, tired of my anxiety and worry. I scream at the horizon, am looking for The way out stays elsewhere, a moment’s calm, blue sky or saxophones.

the winner is as distant as ever, It could be here but it is hard clinging on the winter is here. I am clinging to find release, coming up for air when to black thoughts, as dark as fire has gone out and looking drifts away. discontent, with no reason to be. The world drones on, unsure of why,

248 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 249 Moon Aboe Batbox on Birch Sue Matheson

my words cannot express me; there is no reason for sitting staring into space. Our garden’s overgrown, it is cold winter everywhere and the stars are coming out.

—Rupert M Loydell

250 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 251 “The twisted feet, the half-blind eyes, are easily forgotten”: 1 depicts the barbarian girl’s face encircled by a garland. She is light skinned, has shiny long hair, and is seen wearing a thick white furry attire to probably shield herself from The Collision of Trauma and Counter-Trauma in J.M. the brutal weather. However, her eyes are closed which indicates that she is either blind or Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians is unwilling to look. In the second book cover, the girl’s eyes are open, her skin is darker, she is naked and has patterns drawn all over her bare body which could be indicative of Afro-tribal body art, a popular form of self-expression. In the third image, below Nadine by Suchismita Dutta, University of Miami, Gordimer’s note of critical acclaim for Coetzee, lies the picture of an old white man wiping the tribal girl’s foot with a white towel, and there is a bowl of water next to him. Coral Gables, Florida The girl’s skin tone is much darker here stressing her specific racial identity. The window is open and the red-orange hue of the skyline denotes that it is time for sunset. There is a disturbing sense of continuity in all these covers, which is further highlighted by the broken feet of the girl. In fact, her feet are not just broken but separated from the rest of her body giving the readers an awareness of the deranged pornographic violence that they are about to encounter in the story. In this essay, I establish that although the absence of any spatial and historical specificity in Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians disrupts the reading methodologies for understanding his novelistic approach, Coetzee’s position of “nonposition” witnesses the co-presence of the subaltern’s trauma as well as the counter- trauma that ensues from it which is encountered by the colonizer (Orwell 84).1

The book covers chosen by Penguin Books for different editions of this novel offer The book covers of J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians that I have illustrated an insight into trauma studies endowing possibilities to study the oppressor’s trauma above have the predominant presence of a disabled and silenced female figure. All the three images deal with the common theme of the effects of the Empire’s dehumanizing regime on a female body. There is something distinctly traumatic in these images; figure 1. Orwell uses the term “nonposition” to indicate that critics find it difficult to attribute any positionality to Coetzee’s postcolonial authorship. 252 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 253 through the socially constructed body of the barbarian girl.2 By assimilating the sufferings traumatic experiences encountered by the oppressor. of a non-Western culture with that of its colonizer’s, Waiting for the Barbarians opens Figure 1 and 2 fail to capture the colonizer’s predicament and only highlight the avenues to understand the varying definitions of pain and recovery of a marginalized silence of the subjugated barbarian girl. In the first image, the girl’s eyes are shut, which community especially in the discourse of postcolonial studies. Discussing ways of can also be interpreted as a state of conscious blindness; a state where she chooses to decolonizing trauma studies, Sonya Andermahr points out that “while trauma theory has remain silent, and shuts her eyes to the harrowing experience of being governed by undoubtedly yielded numerous insights into the relationship between psychic suffering a totalitarian institution. In the second cover, the girl has a deathly, vacant gaze. Her and cultural representation, postcolonial critics have been arguing for some time that expressionless face draws our attention to the word “waiting” in the title allowing us to trauma theory has not fulfilled its promise of cross-cultural ethical engagement” (1). presume that the readers could get caught up in the quagmire of eternal waiting. What is Her argument also highlights how “a narrowly Western canon of trauma literature has far more troubling to grasp in the third image are the dismantled feet of the girl. While in effect emerged, one which privileges the suffering of white Europeans, and neglects the Magistrate seems to be completely engrossed in the act of washing them, the feet the specificity of non-Western and minority cultural traumas” (1). J.M. Coetzee’s novel do not form a part of her body. The upper part of the girl is invisible, and since her dismantles this issue by allowing the readers to perceive simultaneously the trauma feet are detached from her body, the readers cannot fathom if she is in pain or if she is faced by the barbarian girl and the Magistrate of the Empire. experiencing physical pleasure upon having her feet massaged. The aim behind examining Investigating the madness of civilization that the Empire entails, Jane Poyner these three visuals is to establish that this novel alters the ways in which trauma theory draws our attention to the Magistrate’s dilemma because he neither identifies himself bears witness to traumatic histories of race. The artistic representations of trauma on with Colonel Joll nor does he align himself with the tribesmen. “Yet in his proximity the book covers provide ethical responses to the sufferings that colonialism thrusts to the likes of Joll on the one hand and in his imprisonment and torture at the hands on marginalized communities as well as on the ones who suppress their mobility. My of the latter…the Magistrate’s position of both the oppressor and the oppressed is analyses reveal that having a silent, subjugated female on the cover of a powerful Nobel experienced as a kind of double consciousness that can only lead to madness” (Poyner prize winning book is not merely directed towards attracting readership, but it proves 54). While Poyner perceives the Magistrate’s quandary as madness, I study it as the how trauma creates silence and how silence creates new, impenetrable frontiers endowing

2. See Sonya Andermahr’s “Decolonizing Trauma Studies: Trauma and Postcolonialism”- Introduction” p. 1. Trauma agency to the subaltern, female “other” leading to a total disruption of the imperialist studies emerged in the early 1990s as an attempt to respond to forms of human suffering and their cultural and artistic representation. “Born out of the confluence between deconstructive and psychoanalytic criticism and the teleology. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak defines the term subaltern as a position in which study of Holocaust literature, from its outset trauma theory’s mission was to bear witness to traumatic histories in such a way as to attend to the suffering of the other.” 254 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 255 the right to social mobility is taken away. In her words, Magistrate visits the woman, called The Star at the inn to feed his sexual appetite. The girl’s silence, her physical distortion echoes the Empire’s guilt, and the vision of pitiless If the thinking of subalternity is taken in the general sense, its lack of access colonial soldiers beating her foot up to pieces and then almost burning her retina with to mobility may be a version of singularity. Subalternity cannot be generalized a hot iron. The Magistrate gets caught up in an emotional swamp where he can neither according to hegemonic logic. That is what makes it subaltern. Yet it is a category draw any pleasure from the girl’s calmness, nor have a moment of complete contentment and therefore repeatable (475).3 with the woman at the inn. Therefore, his situation becomes deplorable as during a The barbarian girl’s social mobility is hindered due to two reasons; 1) due to her physical sexual act with the beautiful prostitute at the inn, he feels like he is losing his way like a deformity which is caused by her broken foot, as well as her partial blindness, 2) her storyteller losing the thread of his story (45). capture that results in the Empire giving her a choice between navigating within the Right from the beginning, Colonel Joll’s mindless slaughter of innocent tribesmen colonial space either as a beggar woman kneeling “in the shade of the barracks…muffled in and his view that, “[P]ain is truth; all else is subject to doubt” seem to have become a coat too large for her” or as the “Magistrate’s slut” (25, 73). While her social immobility naturalized within the colonial system of power portrayed in the novel. Against this seems like a state of subalternity, I argue that her silence is not her weakness because it backdrop where “thousands of deer, pigs, bears were slain, so many that a mountain leads to what I term as counter-trauma that is eventually inflicted on the Empire. of carcasses had to be left to rot,” the Magistrate forms the softer and more reasonable Through the course of the novel, the girl’s muteness becomes a weapon which is side of the Empire (1). His sympathetic side is reflected through his actions during used against the Magistrate giving her a kind of ruthless superiority during moments of several instances such as, when he tries to tend to the bleeding tribal boy whose father sexual encounter as well as during her long and arduous escape from the Empire. ““What is brutally murdered, his arranging for food supplies for the fisher folk who are taken do I have to do to move you?”: these are the words I hear in my head in the subterranean in as prisoners, and his undertaking the responsibility of rehabilitating the blind young murmur that has begun to take the place of conversation. “Does no one move you?”” girl. In Postcolonial Witnessing, Stef Craps sums up the postcolonial critique of the (44); these are questions that intermittently echo in the Magistrate’s head during their Eurocentric bias of trauma theory and marks the difficulties faced in “constructing a semi-sexual engagements that lead to no emotional fulfillment. I use the term semi- thoroughly decolonized trauma studies’ (1-12). Craps argues that despite its “laudable sexual because the girl seems impenetrable, and offers no carnal gratification, and so the ethical origins, which sought to foster cross-cultural solidarity, trauma theory has

3. See Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s “Scattered Speculations on the Subaltern and the Popular.” Here Spivak argues largely failed to recognize the sufferings of non-Western others (1-12). Coetzee makes that “differentiations between subalternity and the popular must thus concern itself with singular cases and thus contravene the philosophical purity of Deleuze’s thought” (475). 256 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 257 the human, the non-human and even the ecological trauma visible through graphic Coetzee’s good, old Magistrate suffers throughout the novel and fails to give readers descriptions of the mass extinctions. Considering the barbarian girl to be a member of a concrete response to colonialism and the apartheid. He struggles in an epistemic space a seemingly non-Western community, her manifestation within the hodgepodge of her between the fringes of the Empire and the existent barbarian community. This space tattered attire, her long eyebrows and her shiny “black hair of the barbarians” makes the however, belongs to neither the “history that the Empire imposes on its subjects” nor “the girl an exotic object of desire (25). The old Magistrate is at once tempted to take her history of Empire laid upon them (barbarians)” (169-70). Commenting on the South under his refuge. He offers her food and a place to stay, and in return he makes the act African writer’s “fragmented national context in which positionality is always at issue,” of oiling her naked body every night his daily exercise, the rhythm of which lulls him David Attwell pens down certain questions that continually resurface in his mind; he asks, to sleep. But such pleasurable, physically intimate experiences come disguised as arcane “[W]ho is the self-of writing? What is his or her power, representativeness; legitimacy, sensations because the Magistrate never gets an adequate response or reaction from her. and authority?” (Attwell 3).4 My counter reading of the novel shows that the “’power,” “representativeness,” “legitimacy,” and “authority”, specifically the authority to express The ritualistic oiling sessions denote dichotomous meanings. On one hand, it trauma and disability in her own silent way, lay in the hands of the blind barbarian girl seems like a daily purgatorial venture where the Magistrate seems to be engaged in an the moment she had access to the Magistrate’s bedroom. Her agency passes through act of cleansing himself off the Empire’s sins by taking care of the girl personally, on the her stillness, and leads to a moment of displacement in both herself and the Magistrate, other hand, these episodes symbolize a different kind of torture inflicted on the woman’s ultimately proving the failure of imperialism’s dominating self. disfigured body where neither her consent is asked for nor is her satisfaction given any attention. At the end of every session, the Magistrate falls asleep and there is no mention During the Magistrate’s quest for self-atonement through the act of washing of any sexual consummation, and every carnal sensibility culminates to futility. The and oiling the girl’s body, the barbarian girl’s “otherness” becomes superior against his Magistrate’s dark realization that, “[T]hese bodies of hers and mine are diffuse, gaseous, inadequate masculinity, so much so that it becomes a metaphorical attack on the Empire. centerless, at one moment spinning about a vortex here, at another curdling, thickening Hence, the Magistrate’s ruthless colonial self is titillated by an unreactive female who he elsewhere; but often also flat, blank” makes his experience of these private, amorous equates to a non-human animal, and an indigenous creature. He says to the girl, “[P] moments unapologetically blistering (34). Coetzee’s metanarrative legitimizes the fact eople will say I keep two wild animals in my room, a fox and a girl” (34). For the first that the Magistrate is a part of the Empire, he is a colonizer and therefore, he should also time, his kind and compassionate self is defeated by the loyal colonial subject in him be punished for the Empire’s mindless slaughter of innocent tribesmen. 4. Analyzing the positionality of the colonized subject, David Attwell call’s Waiting for the Barbarians a “postmodern metafiction that declines the cult of the merely relativist and artful” (1). 258 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 259 who is comparable to Colonel Joll himself. The man who had earlier sheltered and fed an the body to the broader social, political, and cultural contexts in which bodies are located entire group of barbarian prisoners momentarily exposes his sadistic, monstrous side, and and which give them meaning” (“Intersections”). This view is especially true in the case the Magistrate introspects in private unleashing thoughts that say, “I undress her, I bathe of Coetzee’s novel because through the girl’s wound and impairment the historical origins her, I stroke her, I sleep beside her- but I might equally well tie her to a chair and beat of her trauma come into light while her disabled body gets socially constructed. Her her, it would be no less intimate” (43). The blind girl’s desirable body at once becomes barbarian self is the prototype of “the hysteria about the barbarians” which makes the entire “ugly” for the Magistrate as he temporarily becomes a barbarian himself, uncivilized, and colonizing force feel scared of “visions of the barbarians carousing in his home, breaking ready to barter his empathy for a successful sexual conquest with an ugly creature who is the plates, setting fire to the curtains, raping his daughters” (8). It is this invalidated fear beyond his control (47). Hence the routine act of oiling strips him off every iota of peace that marks the beginning of Colonel Joll’s mad venture of ethnic cleansing along the after which he embarks on an almost impossible mission to cross the vast stretches of the fringes of the Empire. Hence, even the existence of the tribesmen is posited as being in swamps and deserts in order to unite the girl with the rest of the barbarian tribe. When struggle with the normative Western culture. Since the Magistrate neither believes in the moment of atonement finally arrives, and the Magistrate and the girl stand in front the apocalyptic powers of the barbarians nor approves of the Third Bureau’s decision of of the rest of the tribe, he loses his purpose. The dormant colonizer in him comes alive, ethnic cleansing, he suffers from what E. Ann Kaplan calls “collective or cultural trauma” and he refuses to let her go. She at once begins to embody the subjugated private slut, the that “involves taking responsibility for injustices in the past… preventing future human- vulnerable beggar, the fox, and the taut oiled body, all of which belong to the Magistrate. based catastrophe” (53-54). Gripping her arm strongly, he implores her to rethink her decision; “[T]ell them what The girl’s subaltern position is disrupted, the façade of her “barbarian upbringing” you like. Only, now that I have brought you back, as far as I can, I wish to ask you very drops instantly and she takes control by attacking the colonial Empire with one refusal, clearly to return to the town with me. Of your own choice” (71). For the first time, the “[N]o. I don’t want to go back to go back to that place,” she says (56-71). Perhaps this girl reacts, she smiles a sadistic smile, “shakes her head, keeps her silence” and blatantly solves the mystery behind the fictional, impending attack of the barbarians on the Empire refuses to go back to the Empire displaying an outrageous clash between her trauma and for which the Third Bureau led by Colonel Joll was appointed. The girl remains stoic her oppressor’s counter-trauma (71). throughout her transition as a tortured body, beaten, bruised and blinded by the colonial In a study charting the development of disability studies, Casper and Morrison soldiers, and eventually oiled and pampered by another colonial subject, the Magistrate. propose that, “disability studies has done an exceptional job of moving disability beyond Both these very different and almost conflicting acts keep her disability dominated under

260 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 261 the bondage of colonialism. Commenting on the metaphor of the injured body Susana And some who have just returned from the border say Onega writes, “the African body is continually “on show” in colonial and postcolonial there are no barbarians any longer.

discourse: objectified, manacled, incarcerated, whipped, tortured, branded, categorized, And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians? starved” (202). Due to this reason, the girl’s silent mutiny in the end is broadly symbolic of They were, those people, a kind of solution. the Empire losing against a woman which makes it a more humiliating loss. Susan Onega’s The poem as well as Coetzee’s novel end by establishing the broken subjectivity of the theory on the objectification of the African body is applicable to the idea of the colonized Empire and the barbarians. The Magistrate’s incomprehensible dream of a hooded girl body in general. In fact, objectifying, feminizing and sexualizing a colonized nation, a building a fort of snow becomes a premonition that the wait for the barbarians will be colonized body, colonized desires is a common occurrence in colonial and postcolonial eternal because there are no barbarians after all. The exodus of the girl and her merging writing. For example, in Shalija Patel’s Migritude, Asian-African women wearing saris with her tribesmen is a knell of the looming death of an Empire, and the death of the and jewelry become emblematic of the South Asian diaspora’s political reality in Africa idea called barbarians. until they are mercilessly raped and robbed by colonial soldiers. Examples like these echo the thought processes that Penguin Books might have followed while choosing book covers that portray the trauma encompassed by a silent body. Colonialism’s lingering control on postcolonial thinking makes it easier to imagine the colonized subject as a female, physically weak, and therefore conveniently controllable. This analysis explains why Coetzee chose not to give the barbarian girl a name because as Spivak points out, “subalternity is a position without identity” (476). Hence, the name of the girl becomes inessential.

By choosing not to speak, the uncivilized, savage girl negates her subalternism, and imposes it upon the Magistrate and on the fading imperialism. Egyptian-Greek poet C. P. Cavafy’s poem titled, “Waiting for the Barbarians,” ends with the following lines:

…night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.

262 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 263 Works Cited Postcolonial Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, 2005, pp. 475–486.

Sonya Andermahr. ““Decolonizing Trauma Studies: Trauma and Postcolonialism”- Attwell, David. J.M. Coetzee: South Africa and the Politics of Writing. 1993. Introduction.” Humanities, vol. 4, no. 4, 2015, pp. 500–505. Casper, Monica J., and Morrison, Daniel R. “Intersections of Disability Studies and Critical Trauma Studies: A Provocation.” Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 2, 2012, pp. [no pagination].

Coetzee, J. M. Waiting for the Barbarians. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1982. Print.

Craps, Stef., and Ebooks Corporation. Postcolonial Witnessing: Trauma out of Bounds. 2013.

Kaplan, E. Ann. “Trauma Studies Moving Forward: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, vol. 27, no. 2, 2013, pp. 53–65.

Patel, Shalija. Migritude. 2010. Kaya Press, NY. Print.

Poyner, Jane. J.M. Coetzee and the Paradox of Postcolonial Authorship. 2009.

Onega, Susana. “Trauma, Shame and Ethical Responsibility for the Death of the Other in J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians.” Other People’s Pain: Narratives of Trauma and the Question of Ethics, Peter Lang, New York, NY, 2011, pp. 201–236.

Orwell, George. “Politics and the English Language.” Orwell and Politics. Ed. Peter Davidson. London: Penguin, 2001.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Scattered Speculations on the Subaltern and the Popular.” 264 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 265

Shadows on the wall

Shadows on the wall of breasts shadowed on a wall of lusts! scorching overnight, Bet back my heart complaining under the sun I’ll tell you a lover’s heart hemmed in the dream’s hennaed palm what you’re closing for them. a bela-bud of desire / the sickle of Marx . Yea, I will yell Charm, let’s stoop to game , I will tell the game of pleasure –of love- of lust- of labour - of pain That the system is so; let’s sustain whatsoever-the loss or gain, Cute barter the reality ,I’ll bet a connoisseur Cuddly and ravishing! an aficionado of reality-of deadly hunger , the thirsty deaths O rose bud –give me back my pace- of ailing youths, and bandying age, I will narrate your glory- TILL THE END OF DAYS- bandying about myths You someone –stunning /ravishing/ dazzling/ fetching so on- so on- so on of youth, Yes, bewitching of course! of olds Since your stricture sucks –hey Shadows on the wall! of odds of sails of nails —R.P Singh of cheeks

266 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 267 Windy Day Sue Matheson

Boxing Helena: An Obsession Worth Recovering

byAntonio Sanna, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Boxing Helena is the debut film by American screenwriter and director Jennifer Chambers Lynch (b. 1968), daughter of popular director David Lynch. Jennifer had previously written The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (a revealing text about the fictional early 1990s TV series Twin Peaks) and her subsequent directorial works are Surveillance (2008), Hisss (2010) and Chained (2012). Boxing Helena was first presented at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1993 and then at the Venice International Festival in September 1993, and it attracted much publicity because of the rumors about the fact that several popular actresses of the time involved in erotic films (such as Madonna and Kim Basinger) were contacted for the leading role and then renounced it. The film was not a success at the box office, especially after many feminist critics attacked its depiction of the female protagonist as victimized and as an object with no personal wills or desires. Boxing Helena is part of that current of erotic thrillers – including Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction (1987), Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992), Uli Edel’s Body of Evidence (1993) and Phillip Noyce’s Sliver (1993) – that conquered worldwide viewers in the late 1980s and

268 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 269 1990s and provoked many shocked reactions and/or protests because of their explicit tricks Helena into visiting him home to return her the passport she forgot at the party; depiction of nudity and unconvensional sexual practices as well as their portrayal of she is enraged by his tiresome requests for attention and leaves his house in a hurry. controversial female characters (especially rapacious, obsessive, psychotic women). Unlike Unfortunately, she is run over by a car and, when she regains consciousness, she discovers his predecessors, however, Boxing Helena did not enjoy a fame and reputation lasting to that Nick has amputated both of her legs and has secretly kept her in his villa. the present day. A recovery of the film could be, however, a pleasant experience for both Helena thus becomes a prisoner of Nick, who retires from his job in order to take those viewers who are familiar with it and those who have never watched it. care of her. Helena is furious against Nick and uses all occasions to blame, attack and The story begins with a flashback sequence set during the male protagonist’s puberty, ridicule him, particularly after the visit of a preoccupied Anne results in a disastrously when he is a young blond boy, whose father is too busy with his medical profession and brief sexual performance by Nick. In spite of her objectified position, Helena is verbally whose mother prefers the attentions of young men. The subsequent scene portrays the dominating over Nick, never hesitating to insult him and using harsh language and an male protagonist, “Nick Cavanaugh” (Julian Sands), now a brilliant surgeon who works aggressive tone to address him. After a furious fight in which she attempts to strangle at his father’s hospital, attending the latter’s funeral. Nick lives in his deceased parents’ the surgeon, he decides to cut both of her arms too, forcing her into a position of total luxurious villa, and has a very nice and thoughtful girlfriend, “Anne” (Betsy Clark). dependence on him. This even intensifies the woman’s verbal violence against him until However, he is obsessed with “Helena” (Sherylyn Fenn), a very attractive and provocative he has a vision in which an Helena still possessing her arms and legs suggests him how to young woman with whom he slept once in the past. After meeting her by chance in a treat and arouse a woman sexually. Nick then invites a prostitute to his home and has a bar, he becomes anxious and looses his self-confidence. Also, he starts following Helena passionate intercourse with her while Helena watches from a semi-closed door. After this around, sends her flowers, and even invites her to an exclusive party at his villa. Helena episode Helena becomes less bad-tempered and hostile towards Nick, but fate intervenes already has a boyfriend, “Ray” (Bill Paxton), whom she leaves the day before the party precisely when she realizes the reality of her need for him and declares her love to him. because she has decided to leave to Mexico. She is not interested at all in Nick and finds Indeed, her former lover, Ray (who had been suspicious of the surgeon’s intentions all the him pathetic, boring and annoying. During the party Helena makes a scene by bathing time), discovers the couple while kissing each other and, after entering Nick’s home, he in the garden’s fountain and flirting with a friend of the doctor. Nick witnesses the severely beats the surgeon who collapses on the floor. Nick then wakes up in a hospital scene and his evident frustration and pain are discovered by his girlfriend Anne, who where he realizes that everything that happened after Helena’s accident has only been understands his fixation for Helena and temporarily leaves him. The following day Nick a fantasy of his, a fantasy of male domination over woman probably induced by his

270 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 271 simultaneous consumption of medicines and alcohol, a fantasy involving all the people unmotivated close-ups on Helena’s face are dispersed throughout the first part of the film, belonging to his daily life (in a similar way to Victor Fleming (et al.)’s 1939 The Wizard thus further suggesting her involuntary appearance in the doctor’s mind. After Helena is of Oz and Walter Murch’s 1985 Return to Oz). Nick is told that Helena will recover from “boxed”, however, the frequency of close-ups is drastically reduced and they are replaced the accident and he visits her, but, terrorized by a flashback of his own dark fantasy, he by medium and large shots of her, thus almost confirming Nick’s interest in her as a leaves without waking her up. The film ends with a nightmare of his that depicts his persona rather than exclusively as a sexual object. The film nevertheless offers a harsh replica of the Venus De Milo exploding. perspective on men’s possessiveness and sexist treatment of women: Ray tells Helena what to do and what to wear, Nick cheats on Anne and then forces Helena to be his possession by mutilating her body. On the other hand, Boxing Helena partly attributes the fault of Nick’s misbehavior against Helena and his desire to possess her to an evident Oedipal complex (the surgeon’s mother has died few months before the beginning of the story). This is revealed in a series of flashbacks and visions that depict Nick’s mother as a severe man-eater who mistreats him and is never ashamed to appear naked in front of him. Simultaneously, Helena is represented as a strong, selfish, malignant and voluptuous woman, who refuses to comply with men’s desires until the end of the narrative. Unfortunately, this would seem to allow a chauvinist spectator to justify her imprisonment and the mutilation of her body as a deserved punishment. Helena (Sherylyn Fenn) and Nick (Julian Sands) during one of their frequent (verbal) fights (copyright Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer). Both the protagonists perform their roles convincingly: Julian Sands manages to

Boxing Helena is deeply interested in voyeurism, especially in its first part: Nick express with realism the doctor’s fixation (especially in those sequences he is suffering spies on Helena from the tree in front of her window while she undresses, he watches from jealousy) as well as his insecurities, which would rather suit to an unexperienced her photographs as a model and the camera lingers on the details of her body frequently. adolescent (he has to rehearse a phone call a couple of times before calling Helena and The viewer is therefore involved in the visual enjoyment of the female protagonist’s then he hungs up on her). Sherylyn Fenn excels instead in those moments of furious rage body, especially through the use of slow-motion repetitive frames. Furthermore, several that her character vexes against the doctor. One of the greatest merits of the film are those

272 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 273 scenes which establish a clear parallel between the female protagonist and a caged bird or between her and the replica of the Venus De Milo statue present in the doctor’s house. Noteworthy is also the film’s soundtrack, which includes the seductive track “Sadeness” by CAFFEINE NATION Enigma, the enchanting orchestral piece providing the “Love Theme” by Graeme Revell and a series of opera songs by Puccini. On the other hand, an almost unforgivable fault of Boxing Helena derives from the fact that the device of the dream narrative is revealed A caffeine nation, born after sundown, too abruptly and with a simplicity that almost make it hideous, in spite of the realization Skulking across the arc-light landscapes. that actual victimization of the female protagonist did not occur. Many viewers will The insomniac parliament, shoaling for probably think that, since the narrative had ventured so outrageously far throughout cigarettes and waffles, holding court in all night diners; we will create a its development, it could have represented at its end the ultimate consequences of the a new world, hidden from the oppressive sun. surgeon’s obsession rather than denying them. Considering that it is one of the most Give us the slow mournful nightingale’s call extreme erotic thrillers of its time in spite of its finale, Boxing Helena is definitely worthy for a national anthem. of being (re-)watched. Undoubtedly, it is a modern narrative that could be well set in Give us a streetlight illuminated landscape, contemporary days, since it describes an obsession of the male psyche that has not ceased a jazz tinged, Coltrane carpeted world. to exist in a world that still contains many traces of sexism.

—Allen Berry

274 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 275 Snow Fence Sue Matheson

The First Ingredient

by Walter M. Young

The envelope lay on the glass table. Its contents stirred a great and terrible storm within me.

The emblem of the buffalo marked the original source of where the package came from. Buffalo Courier. It was a private service I used when important messages had to be sent discreetly. As of late, my uses for such a service have been many.

I removed its contents and skimmed through the letter. It was addressed to myself, Mr. Loci. The letter was from a northern agricultural town called Elliot’s Lake. The writer was a pilot I’d met in my salad days, Tyler Tobacco. He confirmed there was someone who knew the plant of which he wrote of months prior.

After reading through it a second time, I place the letter down and sat in silence. A sense of relief weakened my knee. Or was it my search finally bore fruit?

    

About four months ago my wife became sick with a mysterious disease. Doctors and science could not save her. For days, I would watch her as she slipped in and out of madness. Some nights she would cry to sleep in my arms. We weren’t ready for that part of marriage where we do part. I promised her I would find a solution.

It was then I spoke to a character of aboriginal descent who specialized in spiritual and herbal medicines. He presented me with three ingredients written on a pieces of birch bark. I memorized the elder’s writing carefully. Within the hour the

276 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 277 birch papyrus with these three ingredients dissolved into woodchips. I was astounded, I thanked him and left the Mystic Wok. yet drunk with revelation.     

     The chief of the Otah Indian Band had a notorious reputation as a politician in band legislature. I drove down highway ten later that day. The passing green sign informed me the town of Elliot’s Lake was twenty minutes away. The journey into the north revealed Rumours speculated his connection to gangland myths. Across the media a vast land of canola fields and Trembler trees. A blue barn rose up on the left side, venues, Kesekaw Morrin, was an ally of sustainable resource development. The latest where windmills swayed gently. A passing mail box read MITH 82. circulations reported he had tested a renewable power source in his backyard.

The first houses and commercial buildings began rising up like sentinels guarding Personally, I didn’t know him. If there was one thing about anyone with the title the north. It was a lazy afternoon when I reached the main street. I parked outside a Chief is they must have time for someone. diner called the Mystic Wok where I was supposed to meet the pilot, Tyler Tobacco. The street leading to the chief’s house was a dirt road with numerous potholes The front entrance opened and I stepped in. The owl bear clock above the cash and flanked with deep shrubs of red willow. A cloud of dust bellowed in my rear view register read nearly four. No one filled the rows of empty booths. At the bar stand, a mirror. I was most particular about the number of vehicles that were parked outside the grey old man in a green vest gripped his menu pad. The scent of hot sesame seed oil chief’s residence. and rice wine filled the air. When I parked my car, I began walking toward a double duplex with white I ordered a black tea and waited for Tyler. gables. The estate had a remarkable D shape drive way with a wooden tablet set in the granite foundation. I gazed in curiosity at the tablets’ mysterious syllabics. Given my Forty ticks later, a stubby man with well groomed braids and sunglasses came limited knowledge of the Inninew language I could not deduce its meaning. The lawn strolling in. He didn’t remove his dark sunglasses when he recognized me. Instead, the toward the river was well kept with occasional shrubs sprouting like green mushrooms. pilot swaggered to the barstool beside me and asked, “What the h’all do you want? I got five kids to feed.” He then waved five fat fingers between our faces. As I climbed the wooden patio I noted an elderly woman and her daughter sitting beside the entrance. I asked them where the chief was. I asked him about the letter he wrote. The elder spoke an archaic dialect that was pre-residential school. Then the He dipped his chin before asking, “All these years and you’re not even gonna daughter translated what her mother said. The chief was in his bush garden, the greet me. Well, I did mention something about something. The chief of the Otah daughter said. When she pointed where the bush garden was I thank her and Indian Band has a plant like the one you spottin for.” proceeded. When he told me where to find this chief, Tyler extended his hand. “When your The chief’s bush garden was behind the residence. Its flat, rock pathway done with this little pow wow come by the place.” branched in several locations. The green mushroom shrubs I’d seen before grew around

278 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 279 the path ways. As I looked closer, the branches bloomed with a strange, jaded fruit. Its smooth and strong colour made me think it was a plum.      “Taneke,” a voice behind me said. “Who are you?” As I left the chief’s estate, I took one last look in the rear view mirror then at the I turned to meet the figure known and clothed as Kesekaw Morrin. He wore grey plastic bag laying in the passenger seat as if it would disappear in a puff of smoke. With trousers and striped shirt with rolled up sleeves. His silver braids were taut and hung one of the three ingredients I now possessed the smiling face of my wife came to mind. over his right shoulder. Hope had not faded from me. I drove down the gravel road and continued my journey I told him my name and asked if he knew of the plant specimen I described. into the north.

“I know of this medicine,” replied Kesekaw. “The grandcestors told me someone      would come seeking in my garden. Would you follow me?” How Ethan Loci retrieved the other ingredients remains in another story. The chief led me down his flat, stone path way toward the river. Curiously remembering the wood and granite tablet I had seen before, I asked Chief Morrin what it meant.

The aging chief smiled and said, “It is written in the syllabics of my people. It is a form of short hand which produces the textual equivalent of our language. Every time a new chief is elected a wooden tablet is set in the granite foundation. The legacy of my grancestors is also written to remind the community of past leadership.”

As we approached the edge of the river I could hear the rushing of water. The green mushroom shrubbery receded by this point except for one. Swaying near the grassy shores was a single shrub with pale branches. Hanging from a single twig was the plant I sought.

When I asked the chief for the plant he explained, “My daughter took care of this part of the garden. After she died the river began rising until it touched the roots. She told me it was a special plant and someone would seek it.” When the chief nodded his solemn red chin, he said, “You may have this plant.”

After I gave him a pouch of tobacco, I carefully placed the plant into a plastic bag and thanked the chief.

280 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 281 Main Street, The Pas, MB Sue Matheson A Review of Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

A Review of Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

by Paromita Sengupta, Sovarani Memorial College, Jagatballavpur, Howrah, WB, India

India, currently, is a land of chaos, of war, of many and conflicting identities, of contradictions, of oppositely positioned powers who claim to love her and crave to possess her, of vicious forces that have the dangerous potential of destructing it from within. Arundhati Roy wanted to so vigorously argue this idea in her much-awaited second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness ,that she sometimes seems to lose her way in its rambling, maze-like, narrative. That sense of losing way, that experience of being burdened, that un-comfort, that un-novel like unfolding of events and characters, however, seems but part of a conscious literary strategy—the novelist's way of telling the complacent reader that all is not well with the world around, all is not perfectly structured, a myriad injustices are compounding all around us, and that maybe we cannot afford to ignore these issues with our snug little life because whether we realise or not, we are part of the becoming of the problem, and we can either be the unbecoming of it or our very existence itself may soon "unbecome."

282 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 283 The novel is steeped in political statements and hardly forgets to touch on any of invited.” The reader is then taken back in time, the first of the innumerous time-shifts the significant issues that have been part of the history of India in last thirty years or so- of this achronological yet breathtakingly powerful narrative that defies any attempt to from the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the riots that followed it, the Bhopal gas tame it with our reading. We are soon introduced to the little baby Aftab, who is both tragedy, the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Godhra, 9/11, Kashmir, the Maoist rebellion, male and female, and who is, the first of the many metaphors of India in the novel. Aftab Dalit issues, the current saffron wave, Modi’s rise to power in spite of Godhra (he’s grows up to realise his “fitrat” (tendency), that he is not a “he” as projected by his mother, brilliantly satirised as “Gujarat ka Lalla”), the anti-corruption crew of Anna Hazare, and he soon leaves the “duniya” (world) to live in the “Khwabgah” (literally – dream Arvind Kejriwal (camouflaged as Mr Aggarwal): no one escapes Roy’s attention- neither world). Aftab transforms into Anjum whose conflicted yet inclusive body-condition is the recent Srinagar floods nor the deluge of spam SMS from Thyrocare. We are shown a powerful metaphor for the multiple-identity ridden India. As pointed out by Anjum’s the harassment of parents whose children are suffering from cancer: “People crowded the friend: “The riot is inside us. The war is inside us. Indo-Pak is inside us. It will never counters of the all-night chemists, playing Indian Roulette. (There was a 60:40 chance settle down. It can’t.” that the drugs they bought were genuine or spurious.)” But Roy’s greatest contempt Anjum’s life changes when she experiences Godhra. She gives up her flashy, feminine is reserved for the superficial middle-classes, many of whom are her potential readers, way of dressing to mourn for it and moves out of the “Khawgah” to the graveyard in represented by three “beautifully groomed, pencil-thin college girls” who walk past the grey, masculine “pathan suit”. In the graveyard she makes motley of interesting friends, protesters in Jantar Mantar mouthing: “Oh wow! Kashmir! What funnn! Apparently it’s prime among who is Saddam Hossein, a victim not only of caste-politics, but also of completely normal now, ya, safe for tourists. Let’s go? It’s supposed to be stunning.” For misinformation. a people who fear to take a stance on even one issue, to be faced with a writer who has a Like Anjum’s divided soul, Tilottama’s complex life is the other major metaphor stance on everything, is bound to create discomfort. for India in the novel. Tilottama seems heavily modelled on Roy herself. Her very birth Attempting to tell a “shattered story”, the novel assumes many voices, many is a disturbed history and the subject of conflicting versions. Her adult life is rife with points of view. It begins brilliantly with Sophie Mol’s question from The God of Small complexities as well. She is loved by three very different men, all of who are charmed Things, “Where do old birds go to die?” Roy then takes us to a graveyard where Anjum by her. If Tilo is India, these men are the various forces that lay claim on her - a high- lives “like a tree”. The graveyard is a “mehfil”, “a gathering. Of everybody and nobody, ranking government official called Biplab Dasgupta posted in Kashmir, a journalist - of everything and nothing. Is there anybody else you would like to invite? Everyone’s Naga, and Musa- a Kashmiri, co-opted into militancy by his personal tragic experience

284 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 285 with Indian Army. She briefly allows them all in her life in some way or other, but she in all its myriad social, political, religious and cultural crisis that subsist just beneath the can truly belong to none. Tilo takes the story from Delhi to Kashmir- the beautiful valley seemingly smooth surface of everyday life. steeped in blood and war. While hammering on the gross injustice of India in Kashmir, Before Roy, some of the novels that have engaged with the tumult and violence Roy does not suggest any simple separatist resolution. She is equally aware of the internal prevalent in Kashmir, are The Collaborator (2011) by Mirza Waheed and Our Moon has conflict of Kashmiris and of the terrors inflicted by the militants. Blood Clots (2013) by Rahul Pandita, both realistic and brilliant portrayals. No Guns An intriguing and unforgettable character in this novel is Amrik Singh, the at my Son’s Funeral (2005) by Paro Anand also was on the Kashmir issue, but toed the perpetrator of unthinkable hatred, posted in Kashmir, wreaking havoc on all who come official Indian stance on the subject. Roy’s novel surpasses these earlier works in its sheer his way, who ultimately becomes insane and kills his own family and also himself. He scale and encyclopaedic nature. too is a metaphor for India. Roy pertinently points out that Kashmir is an “incubator The Ministry, for all the problems it highlights, is not a pessimistic or dark novel. It for every kind of insanity”, and will eventually send India insane, make it “self-destruct”. suggests that redemption is possible and it may come from the margins. Lost children are The process has already started with hatred and disrespect for life now flowing into the recovered, lonely individuals come together to form a strange but beautiful family. All of heartland of India. The violence spreads like induction current. it comes through assertion of personal choices, sacrifice and self-denial. Roy deploys various narrative modes - diary entries, news clippings, a very interesting The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is not happy, comfortable reading. Neither is as well as disturbing ‘Reader’s Digest Book of English Grammar,’ text messages and a it going to go down well with a lot of readers. Unlike The God of Small Things, which very effective ‘Kashmiri-English Alphabet’. It is also crammed with various documents, mostly was a story of persons, Ministry is the story of a nation- a nation which is a many diaries, reports, narrations and their re-tellings that emerge out of the most unlikely of headed monster. Its telling can never be easy. It jerks us out of our comfort zone, makes places such as a freezer. In Roy’s world things and people often are what they don’t seem us part of the problem and questions our very humanity, our very being. It suggests to be. They are not what they are. They are what they are not. With all these and the that another way of life is possible but we are not humane enough to risk it. It suggests various metaphors, word play, satire, it does indeed seem that she is over doing it a bit, and that a ministry of utmost happiness may be created even in a graveyard, but for that we this overdoing is symptomatic of the intensity of Roy’s politics which infiltrates the novel must first reject the “duniya” that we have created and nurture a space of everyone and not only in every line but also in between them. The apparently careless and haphazard everything in our hearts. That kind of proposition is not likely to go down well with all style is well suited to a story whose span is panoramic, a montage of contemporary India readers. Misplaced nationalists who earlier wished that Roy should be tied to a jeep must 286 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 287 be now clamouring for something far more gruesome for her for daring to point out that CONTRIBUTORS in the end, “Kashmir will make India self-destruct”.

Taiwo Okunola Afolabi (BA University of Jos, MA University of Ilorin, Nigeria) is a Who after all likes to be told that they are doing it all wrong? Who likes to be PhD Candidate in the Department of Theatre, a Queen Elizabeth Scholar, and a Grad- reminded that the cosy, sheltered good life that we propagate on social media is but a uate Fellow at the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria. Taiwo’s doctoral research broadly focuses on forced migration, displacement and the role of arts in en- bubble that may burst anytime? Who would like to face the truth that in the India that gendering effective resettlement for both refugees and internally displaced persons for citizen participation. He has undertaken both artistic and research projects in China, they think is “progressing”, rape, torture, death are everyday living realities for many? Ireland, Burkina Faso, Denmark, Nigeria, Spain, Sri Lanka, Iran, Croatia and Sudan. He is an alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Program of the United States of America. He founded Theatre Emissary International and co-coordinates the Network of Emerging Arts Professionals of the UNESCO’ s International Theatre Institute (ITI/ UNESCO).

Joseph D. Atoyebi is a Writing Instructor in the Faculty of Arts, Business, and Science, University College of the North. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Leipzig, Germany. His other area of academic interest includes documenting the language and culture of indigenous peoples.

Allen Berry is a poet and professor of English at South Georgia State College. He is the author of three collections of poetry, the latest being Sitting Up with the Dead, from Writing Knights Press. His work has appeared in The Birmingham Arts Journal, Steel Toe Review, and Amarillo Bay. He is the founder of the Limestone Dust Poetry Festival and served as the president of its Board of Directors from 2001 to 2006. This is his first publication outside of the United States.

Jim Daems is an Assistant Professor and Chair of English at University College of the North, Thompson, where he teaches pre-nineteenth century British Literature. He has published on a variety of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century authors and contemporary pop culture. He is currently co-editing a collection of essays entitled Games of War in British and American Literature, 1588-1783.

Suchismita Dutta is a third-year PhD student at the department of English, University of Miami. Her research interest lies in contemporary American immigrant literature 288 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 289 with a special focus on understanding the connection between sexual identity and racial Amy Tziporah Karp is Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies in New York formation in Indo-American and Afro-American immigrant writing. Recently, she City. She has published poetry and criticism in publications such as the Open Library of presented her paper, “Reading Angry Transnational Voices: Migrant Bodies and Their Humanities, Gender Forum, Flatbush Review, Shofar, Sophie's Wind, Folio. Recently she Belongings in Shalija Patel’s Migritude” at The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic collaborated with filmmaker Brian Katz to make a short film,ABC Conjecture, based Literature of the United States (MELUS) in Massachusetts Institute of Technology on her long poem Through the Wires which has been shown in film festivals around (MIT), Cambridge, MA. She is currently the graduate research assistant for Anthurium: the world. She is currently at work on several projects, critical and creative, exploring A Caribbean Studies Journal. assimilation, ethnicity, and queer identity.

Ben-Akinduro C. Funmike is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of History and Ying Kong is an Assistant Professor, and currently teaches Canadian Literature and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, Nigeria. She is interested in International Relations, Indigenous Literature of the World. Her major research is in life writing, literature in African, and Strategic Studies; and Japanese Historiography. Christianah, a Christian the 20th-century, and comparative literature. Before she joined the University College of Counsellor, instructs in Christian Education and publishes on Christian ethics. the North, she taught Chinese language, culture, literature and cinema for East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Winnipeg. Dr. Kong has widely published in the areas of literature and culture in English and Chinese. Currently, she is in the process of Olfa Gandouz is a teaching assistant of English Language, Literature and Civilization at translating Chinese contemporary writer, Zhang Yawen’s best-selling autobiography, a ISL Gabes, Tunisia. She is currently a PhD student at the FLSH (University of Sousse, best-seller in China, from Chinese into English. Tunisia). Her PhD project is entitled Female Oscillation between Idealization and Debasement in Selected Plays of Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams. She obtained her MA thesis in American Literature in 2012. She is a member of the Cultural Dialogues Rupert Loydell is Senior Lecturer in the School of Writing and Journalism at Falmouth Research Unit (Sousse). Her areas of interest are Irish-American literature, psychoanalysis, University, the editor of Stride magazine, and a contributing editor to international times. postcolonial studies and feminism. He has edited several anthologies of poetry and writing, such as Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh: manifestos and unmanifestos for Salt; and has many books of poetry and prose poetry in print, including Dear Mary (Shearsman, 2017), as well as Encouraging Signs, Jim Gough has completed degrees in Fine Art and Philosophy over the course of several a book of interviews, essays and conversations. His critical writing has been published in years. Research in Philosophy has produced eight texts (some co-edited and some co- Journal of Visual Arts Culture, Revenant, English, Text, New Writing and Punk & Post-Punk. authored), fifty-six academic articles (some co-authored), seventy-eight academic reviews, seventy workshops or conference presentations (some invited and some refereed) on a range of topics. After thirty-five years of teaching philosophy in Ontario and Alberta, Brian MacKinnon is a retired English teacher. Deeply concerned about Winnipeg's inner he was invited to be a consultant for the Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical city poverty and the cross-generational trauma tresulting from the Residential Schools, Institutes. Then he was invited for one three year term (then renewed for a second Brian taught Creative Writing and edited four Awareness Anthologies at RB Russell School. term) to be the first Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Athabasca University in Alberta. In September 2002, he began the RB Russell Downtown Y Anti-Poverty Program, which Whether the research project involves logic, critical thinking, English, communications, became, after his retirement, MacKinnon's Y-Not? Anti-Poverty Program, a registered film studies, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, medical and health care concerns, social charity that has, among other anti-poverty strategies, raised over half a million dollars to work ethics, the common theme in his career has been great satisfaction he gets in the send thousands of Winnipeg's inner city inhabitants, children, teens, young adults and practical application of the skills of a professional philosopher collaborating with other adults, as well as over 300 families, to the Downtown Y. Brian has been writing poetry philosophers and professionals in other disciplines. He continues learning from his since '68 and has numerous poems published in various Canadian literary magazines. colleagues in every discipline.

290 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 291 Sue Matheson is Associate Professor of English at the University College of the North in international journals and regularly presents papers in international conferences. where she teaches literature and film studies. Her interests in cultural failure underpin her research: currently, she specializes in American Horror, Children's Literature, Indigenous Literature, and the Western. Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon (BFA Hons, MA English) is a writer, painter, educator, and independent scholar. Currently, she is a research fellow at St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba, working on a manuscript of linked short stories set in Manitoba Stephen Ogheneruro Okpadah (BA Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria, MA between 1936 and 1980, one of which is “Intervening Angels.” She is the author of University of Ilorin, Nigeria), is a Ph.D Candidate in the Department of Performing Tiktala, recipient of the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award (1997) and Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. His Doctoral research broadly focuses on the Parents’ Choice Honour in the US. Her anti-bullying middle-years novel, The Beech geopolitics, environmentalism and ecological revolution in Feature and Documentary Nut of Big Water Beach (2008) was short-listed for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book films, especially as it ecological crisis driven region of the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Award and has an accompanying guide, available online through Teachers Pay Teachers. Margaret teaches story writing and illustrating to youth from K to 12 in the Manitoba Arts Council’s Artists-in-the-Schools program. She is married to retired teacher and Léna Remy-Kovach is a doctoral student at the Albert-Lüdwigs Universität Freiburg, anti-poverty activist, Brian MacKinnon, and they live in Winnipeg, parents to three Germany. She holds B.A.s in both English and Italian Studies and an M.A. in American young adults. Civilization from the Université de Strasbourg, France, as well as an M.A. in Indigenous and Canadian Studies from Carleton University, Canada. Her current research projects include the representations of pipeline protests in cartoons and comic strips, the R. P. Singh is a Professor of English at the Department of English and Modern commodification of Indigenous mythologies in Euro-American horror television series, European Languages, University of Lucknow. Besides his academic research published in and the imagery of hunger and cannibalism in recent Young Adult fiction by Indigenous acknowledged volumes, journals and encyclopedias, Professor Singh is an award winning writers. Her Ph.D. thesis focuses on the notions of healing and (re)conciliation in playwright and poet. His plays—Flea Market and other Plays (2014), Ecologue (2014), contemporary Gothic Indigenous literatures from Canada and the United States. When Brancho Flies (2014), Shakespeare ki Saat Ratein (2015), and Antardwand (2016)— have received critical acclaim and wide popularity. Banjaran: The Muse (2008), Cloud, Moon and a Little Girl (2017), Pathik and Pravah (2016) and Neeli Aankhon Wali Ladki Antonio Sanna completed his Ph.D. at the University of Westminster in London in (2017) are all volumes of his poetry. He is a recipient of the Mohan Rakesh Puraskar 2008. His main research areas are: English literature, Gothic literature, horror films and (2016), the S.M.Sinha Smiriti Award (2017) and the Bhartendu Harischandra Award TV, epic and historical films and cinematic adaptations. In the past ten years he has (2017) for his creative writing. published over sixty articles and reviews in international journals. Antonio is the co- editor of A Critical Companion to Tim Burton. He is currently employed as a teacher of English literature in Sassari and Alghero (Italy) and he is editing a volume on historical Kwasu David Tembo is a PhD graduate from the University of Edinburgh’s Language, and fictional pirates, a book on Twin Peaks: The Return, and co-editing a volume on Literatures, and Cultures department. His research interests include – but are not limited James Cameron. He is a regular contributor to the quint. to – comics studies, literary theory and criticism, philosophy, particularly the so-called “prophets of extremity” – Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida. He also writes poetry and makes experimental electronic music. Dr. Paromita Sengupta is an Assistant Professor in English at Sovarani Memorial College, Jagatballavpur, Howrah. She teaches Milton, Shakespeare, Restoration Drama, Jane Austen, Indian Writing in English, Nation Theories and Gender Studies. Her research Walter M. Young is a proud member of the Opaskawayak Cree Nation. He is currently interests includePostcolonial Studies, Nineteenth Century Indian Writing in English, completing his Bachelor of Arts at the University College of the North. Gender Studies (particularly Motherhood), Nation and Nationality. She has published 292 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 293 call for papers

Thequint’s thirty sixth issue is issuing a call for theoretically informed and historically grounded submissions of scholarly interest—as well as creative writing, original art, interviews, and reviews of books. The deadline for this call is the 15th of February 2017—but please note that we accept manu/digi-scripts at any time.

quint guidelines

All contributions accompanied by a short biography will be forwarded to a member of the editorial board. Manuscripts must not be previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere while being reviewed by the quint’s editors or outside readers.

Hard copies of manuscripts should be sent to Sue Matheson at the quint, University College of the North, P.O. Box 3000, The Pas, Manitoba, Canada, R9A 1M7. We are happy to receive your artwork in digital format, PDF preferred. Email copies of manuscripts, Word or RTF preferred, should be sent to [email protected]. Essays should range between 15 and 25 pages of double-spaced text, including all images and source citations. Longer and shorter submissions also will be considered. Bibliographic citation should be the standard disciplinary format. Copyright is retained by the individual authors of manuscripts and artists of works accepted for publication in the quint.

the quint thanks Dan Smith, Harvey Briggs, and Rebecca and Stuart Matheson for their generous support of this project. 294 Vol. 10.1 (December 2017) the quint : an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 295